Ukraine-Russia war live: At least 21 injured after Putin’s forces hit Kharkiv apartment block with glide bomb

Russian forces struck a multi-storey apartment building in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday evening, wounding 21 people and prompting an evacuation of some of its residents, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Kharkiv, 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, has been a frequent target of Moscow’s attacks since the Kremlin’s troops launched their February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Terekhov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the Russians had deployed a guided bomb and that 60 residents had been evacuated from the building. An 8-year-old and two 17-year-olds were among the wounded, he added.

A firefighter was killed by a Ukrainian drone in Russia-controlled Luhansk region in the eastern Ukraine, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said on Sunday.

The drone’s explosives detonated when Vyacheslav Glazunov, 33, was extinguishing a fire in the Novoaidar district triggered by fallen drones, the ministry said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed 71 out of 80 attack drones that Russia launched overnight, Ukraine’s air force said this morning.

Additionally, six more of the Russian drones were lost after getting neutralised by Ukraine’s electronic warfare, the air force said.

Russia also launched two guided missiles from occupied parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, the air force said but did not mention if they were intercepted.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 15 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting the Russian territory, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning.

Of these, six drones were destroyed over the Sea of Azov, four over the Rostov region in Russia’s south and the rest over the Kursk, Astrakhan, Belgorod and Voronezh regions, the defence ministry said.

Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Saturday that Russia appeared to be planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter, urging the IAEA and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants.

“In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at (nuclear power plants and) transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.

Ukraine’s foreign minister says Russia is planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter.

“According to Ukrainian intelligence, (the) Kremlin is preparing strikes on Ukrainian nuclear energy critical objects ahead of winter,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.

He also urged the UN’s nuclear watchdog and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants.

“In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at (nuclear power plants and) transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy.”

Mr Sybiha did not elaborate on why Kyiv believed such strikes were being prepared.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow. The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, called for a swift global response to the purported threat of a strike on a nuclear facility.

“This is preparation for a possible nuclear disaster scenario. Russia is a terrorist,” he wrote on Telegram. “They must be stopped here and now. The countries of the West and the Global South must react harshly to preparations for terror.”

Ukraine has previously accused Russia of nuclear blackmail after Russian forces occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in March 2022, early on in the invasion. Moscow denies that allegation.