Kharkiv: Overnight Russian air strikes have killed at least four people, including three young children, in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region, according to local officials.
Kharkiv regional head Oleh Synegubov said two two-year-old boys, a one-year-old girl and a 34-year-old man were killed after a drone struck their home in the town of Bohodukhiv. A 35-year-old pregnant woman and a 73-year-old woman were injured in the same attack.
The latest aerial assault comes as Moscow resumes strikes following a week-long pause that US President Donald Trump had urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe during a period of extreme cold across Ukraine.
Bohodukhiv, located north-west of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, has faced near-daily bombardment in recent days. In the Donetsk region, Russian forces dropped seven bombs on the city of Slovyansk, according to regional head Vadym Filashkin. Three people, including an 11-year-old girl, were killed in that attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has intensified pressure on frontline areas by targeting transport and energy infrastructure with a record number of ballistic missiles. Authorities in the Kharkiv region have declared a state of emergency over the worsening energy situation.
The escalation follows the expiration of an ‘energy truce’ intended to give Ukraine’s power grid temporary relief during severe winter conditions, with temperatures plunging to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Tens of thousands of people across the country are facing prolonged power outages, with many households left without heating or running water.
Zelenskyy stated that the United States aims for the war to conclude by June and that both Ukraine and Russia have been invited to Washington for talks next week. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones reportedly carried out a large-scale attack on Volzhsky in Russia’s Volgograd region.
Regional Governor Andrei Bocharov said an apartment building was damaged, and a fire broke out at a factory. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and fighting has continued across multiple fronts since then.
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