In the Cholodnohirskyi district of Kharkiv, three dead have been recovered from the rubble of a residential building after the Russian missile strike on the city. Mayor Ihor Terekhov announced this on Tuesday, 13 October, as reported by the news agency Ukrinform. According to his statement, ten people were injured in the evening shelling. The rescue and search operation is ongoing, Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
The attack had already occurred on Monday evening, 12 October. According to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, the Russian armed forces deployed ten Banderol-type missiles and targeted civilian infrastructure. In the Cholodnohirskyi district, a missile hit a four-storey residential building and destroyed an entire section of the building, as the governor reported according to the Kyiv Independent. At least ten neighbouring private houses were damaged. In the Shevchenkivskyi district, another missile hit a five-storey residential building; a bank on the ground floor caught fire, six vehicles caught fire, and three neighbouring apartment buildings suffered window damage.
Injured in serious condition
According to Syniehubov, two of the injured are in serious condition: a 19-year-old who was admitted to a burns clinic, and a man who had to undergo surgery. Three other patients were taken to hospital in moderate condition. A rescuer from the State Emergency Service (DSNS) was injured during the operation and hospitalised, as RBC-Ukraine reported, citing the emergency service; his condition was initially unconfirmed. DSNS rescuers, emergency doctors and the National Police worked at the impact sites, and police officers carried out door-to-door checks to identify residents in need of medical assistance.
Reports on the course of the attack differ depending on the source. The Kyiv Independent reported on 12 October, citing Ukrainian authorities, of initially one dead and at least eleven injured, including a rescuer. Three people trapped under the rubble had previously been rescued, the news agency UNIAN reported, citing the DSNS. Mayor Terekhov then reported three dead and ten injured on Tuesday. The figures refer to different points in time during the ongoing rescue work.
Kharkiv is 30 kilometres from the Russian border
Kharkiv is the second-largest city in Ukraine and lies around 30 kilometres from the Russian border. It has repeatedly been the target of attacks since the start of the Russian invasion. Only on 11 October, according to authorities, a Russian air strike on the city killed at least one person and injured eight others. On the evening of 11 October, according to Governor Syniehubov, three people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a missile strike on a grocery shop in the suburb of Pisochyn; among the dead were a 16-year-old boy and two women aged 19 and 51. On the morning of 12 October, Russian drones also hit several apartment buildings in the Kyivskyi district. According to the mayor, floors seven to nine of a high-rise building were destroyed and a fire broke out. According to Governor Syniehubov, twelve people were injured, including a ten-year-old boy, two women aged 74 and 80, and two men aged 36 and 74. According to the report, five drones struck in the Kyivskyi district, and another crashed onto a private property and damaged a fence and windows.
The attacks fall in a phase of contradictory signals about a possible ceasefire. US President Donald Trump had unilaterally announced an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine on 11 October, which caused confusion in Kyiv. According to a senior Ukrainian official, Ukraine had no prior information about such an agreement. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the proposal as good news but stressed that it was important for it to become reality. At the same time, he stated on 12 October that Ukraine would only stop its attacks on Russian refineries if Moscow ended its attacks on the Ukrainian power grid – a ceasefire limited to refineries made little sense for a country with a single, heavily damaged refinery.
Editor’s note: The exact casualty figures for the attack of 12 October may continue to change as the rescue work proceeds. The figures given here come from the respective authorities named and refer to different points in time.
