Russian rockets hit Ukraine’s second-largest city; death toll in residential attack rises

July 11 (UPI) — A Russian rocket attack in Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday killed multiple people, including children, Ukrainian officials said — with one high-ranking official calling it “absolute terrorism.”

Russian forces have been trying for months, unsuccessfully, to take control of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s northeast.

The rocket attack on Monday killed at least three people, Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syneihubov said in a post to social media platform Telegram.

“The Russian invaders launched 3 missile strikes on Kharkiv,” he wrote. “This is absolute terrorism!”

Syneihubov also detailed other damage from Russian strikes — including one that destroyed a school building in the Slobid district and another that damaged a 6-story residential building.

“The defense forces of Ukraine reliably hold their lines and repulse the aggressor. We believe in the armed forces. Ukraine will win!”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials denounced Moscow for an attack on Sunday that killed at least 18 people at a five-story apartment building in the eastern city of Chasiv Yar. Dozens were injured.

Officials said the missile attack damaged three buildings in the residential area of the city, which consists mostly of factory workers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the assault represents more evidence that Russia is specifically targeting Ukrainian civilians. Syneihubov said the same thing in his social posts Monday.

“It was a missile strike. And everyone who gives orders for such strikes, everyone who carries them out in our ordinary cities, in residential areas, kills absolutely deliberately,” Zelensky said according to CNBC.

Syneihubov said that at least two children, one just 4 years old, was injured in Monday’s attacks.

Ukrainian officials said that additional Russian attacks in Siversk, near the newly Russian-controlled city of Severodonetsk, killed at least two people.

There were conflicting reports Monday on fighting near the eastern town of Bohorodychne, north of Sloviansk. Russian officials said the Moscow-backed Luhansk People’s Militia took control of the location.

Ukraine’s military, however, said that it “successfully repelled the enemy assault in the direction of Krasnopillia,” which is about three miles from Bohorodychne, according to CNN.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Moscow’s bombings and military moves over the weekend failed to achieve “any major territorial advances.”

“Ukrainian forces continued to apply localized pressure to the Russian defensive line in northeast Kherson Oblast, also probably without achieving territorial gain,” the ministry said in a tweet.

Luhansk regional Gov. Serhiy Haidai said Monday that Russian rocket fire hit settlements on Luhansk’s border with the Donetsk region. The Luhansk and Donetsk regions form Ukraine’s Donbas, which has been Russia’s primary military goal since April.