Russia unleashed a series of missiles on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region late Wednesday and overnight into Thursday, killing at least 12 people, including an 11-year-old child and the mother of a famous Ukrainian athlete, according to local authorities.
Dozens of others were injured in the strikes, and rescuers were still working to pull people from the wreckage on Thursday morning.
Kateryna Tabashnyk, a Ukrainian high jumper who’s competed in the World Youth Championships and won the gold at the 2013 European Junior Championships, said her mother was killed in the attacks.
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“The Russian world took my mother’s life. They liberated me from my home and my whole life,” Tabashnyk wrote on Instagram, accompanied by video of the fiery wreckage and her bombed out home.
“My mother, I love you very much,” she wrote.
An 11-year-old child and six others were killed when a three-story residential building took a direct hit late Wednesday, according to Oleh Synyehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration.
“Last night was one of the most tragic nights for Kharkiv throughout the whole war. … Once again peaceful residential areas with civilians were hit by Russian terrorists,” Synyehubov wrote on Telegram.
Seventeen people were also injured in the first attack, he said.
That was soon followed by more strikes shortly after 4 a.m. local time, in which he said Russia bombarded the region with missiles as people were still sound asleep. At least three people were killed in one decimated residential building, he said, and an entire family—including a 12-year-old—was killed in another, bringing the death toll to 12, he said in televised comments.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, has said 10 people were confirmed dead in the series of attacks.
Russia’s Defense Ministry took responsibility for the attacks but claimed they had not killed civilians but “more than 90 fighters” at a base for “foreign mercenaries.”
