Ukrainian first responders work at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)
According to regional authorities, Russia used S-300 missiles, fired from inside Russian territory, to strike the factory belonging to Ukraine's prominent Vivat publishing house.
Russian forces fired around 10 missiles in total at Kharkiv, as well as other settlements in the region including Liubotyn, Derhachi, and Zolochiv.
Seven people were killed in the attack, and over a dozen more injured. One of the civilians killed was placed on an ambulance stretcher, his body still intact. The others, discovered by the firefighters one at a time as they made their way through the smoking ruins, were burnt beyond recognition.
Kharkiv is a center of the Ukrainian publishing industry, with repeated attacks seemingly targeting publishing houses condemned as part of Russia's war against Ukrainian culture.
Ukrainian first responder works at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Ukrainian first responders work at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. The destroyed books are seen shattered on the ground. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Burned Ukrainian books at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)First responder at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Ukrainian first responders work at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Killed civilian at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Ukrainian first responders transport a body of a civilian killed in a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)A body of a civilian killed in the Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)First responders work at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Destroyed books at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Ukrainian first responder photographed at the site of a Russian missile attack on a publishing factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 23, 2024. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)
Francis Farrell is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the co-author of War Notes, the Kyiv Independent's weekly newsletter about the war. For the second year in a row, the Kyiv Independent received a grant from the Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust to support his front-line reporting for the year 2025-2026. Francis won the Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandy for war correspondents in the young reporter category in 2023, and was nominated for the European Press Prize in 2024.
Francis speaks Ukrainian and Hungarian and is an alumnus of Leiden University in The Hague and University College London. He has previously worked as a managing editor at the online media project Lossi 36, as a freelance journalist and documentary photographer, and at the OSCE and Council of Europe field missions in Albania and Ukraine.
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Independent, under fire — and unstoppable with you on board
Independent journalism is never easy, and it’s even harder in wartime. Yet we can do it without paywalls, billionaires, or compromise — because of our community. Help us reach 25,000 members by the end of 2025.
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