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.
Francis Farrell is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He has worked as managing editor at the online media project Lossi 36, and as a freelance journalist and documentary photographer. He has previously worked in OSCE and Council of Europe field missions in Albania and Ukraine, and is an alumnus of Leiden University in The Hague and University College London. The Kyiv Independent received a grant from the Charles Douglas-Home Memorial Trust to support Farrell's front-line reporting for the year 2024-2025Read more
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