Two-month old Ukrainian baby killed as Russian missile attack destroys Kharkiv hotel

A two-month-old boy has been killed in a Russian missile attack overnight in Ukraine’s Kharkiv that destroyed a hotel, the regional governor said on Tuesday.

The body of the infant boy was found in the rubble of a three-storey building struck by Russian missiles at 2.30am local time, Kharkiv oblast governor Oleh Synehubov said on his official Telegram channel.

Sharpnel from the attack also injured the baby’s mother, the governor said. In an earlier message, he said one person was trapped under the rubble and three others were pulled out.

The infant who died had been born on 4 December, the governor said, as he shared a photo of the damaged hotel.

“The Russians hit with two S-300 missiles at night,” the governor said in his message. Two other women were also injured with shrapnel wounds, and taken to a nearby hospital, he added.

Russia’s early morning onslaught on the Kharkiv region damaged more than 30 buildings, including private houses, a cafe, shops and private cars in the attack, the National Police said.

The hotel is in the Zolochiv town of the oblast’s Bohodukhiv region, about 40km (24.8miles) from the city’s administrative centre.

Russia has not commented directly on the Tuesday morning attack but has previously denied targeting civilians.

Putin’s forces have repeatedly targeted northeastern Kharkiv city, which is just 30km (18miles) from the Russian border, with missile, mortar and artillery attacks since the beginning of Putin’s invasion in February 2022.

The attacks have surged in the last few weeks and earlier this week, Russia fired artillery and mortar on 18 settlements in the oblast.

Former deputy chief of Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said Russia is indiscriminately attacking the city to cause moral and psychological pressure.

“Kharkiv is their priority, because [Vladimir] Putin can’t forgive the fact that a Russian-speaking city did not want to become part of the Russian world, Lieutenant-General Ihor Romanenko told Al Jazeera.

At the end of January, a Russian missile attack tore through a residential five-storey building killing 10 people and injuring 60 others.

And Russia launched another massive attack on Kyiv and Kharkiv on 2 January, using hypersonic and cruise missiles. The attack killed four people and injured 92 others.

On Monday evening, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces confirmed a surge in Russian attacks along the war’s frontline.

"Within the last 24 hours, missile units launched attacks on one cluster of manpower, two control points and two ammunition storage points of the enemy. The enemy fired seven missiles and launched 25 airstrikes, as well as 52 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems,” it said.

Russian forces also tried to breach the Ukrainian defence in northeast Ukraine with at least eight attacks in the Kharkiv oblast on the Kupiansk. The attacks were repelled, the officials said.