Russian strikes on Kharkiv kill one, injures dozens — Ukrainian officials

Russian attacks on Orthodox Easter Sunday killed a woman buried under rubble and injured 24 in Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region, regional officials said.

Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said six people were injured in an overnight drone attack on the Osnovyanskyi district of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.

Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said 15 more were hurt in an attack later in the day by aerial bombs on the city centre.

"The next time it could hit my house. Why did it hit here? Just who is here? And on such a holy day. How? I cannot grasp it at all..." Natalia Avilova-Patrikeyeva said outside an apartment building with shattered balconies and windows blown out.

"I thought that at least on this day it would remain calm. At four in the morning there also was a strike. I don't sleep, I don't sleep at all."

'Smoke everywhere'

Kharkiv withstood a weeks-long Russian attack in the early days of the February 2022 Russian aggression and has been a frequent target of incursions in recent weeks.

Russia says it does not target civilian sites, but attacks have reportedly hit apartment blocks, schools and medical institutions.

Stunned residents milled about the courtyard outside a block of flats or surveyed debris in apartments or in stairwells. Forensic experts combed the ground for pieces of shrapnel.

"The explosion wave kicked out the door and I hid under the table. When I realised what was happening, there was smoke everywhere," said resident Roza Kuzmenko.

"One woman from our block was wounded, the ambulance took her. Thank God, I only have a scratch (on my arm)."

Shelling Donetsk

Syniehubov also reported the death of an 88-year-old woman in the shelling of the village of Monachynivka, east of Kharkiv.

Her body was recovered from the rubble of a house.

Prosecutors said three people were injured.

Vadim Filashkin, head of the military administration in Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia's slow advance through eastern Ukraine, said two people were killed by shelling in the town of Pokrovsk.

Two were injured in Chasiv Yar, west of the Russian-held town of Bakhmut and cited by Ukraine as Moscow's next target in its campaign.