UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Jul 7 — Latest reports from authorities say that today’s Russian drone attack on Kharkiv killed at least one — a 34-year-old woman died in the hospital after being severely injured — and injured at least 82 people, including eight children.
A cat sits near Evhenii. He tells Gwara he can’t make her go home — she’s too stressed. His flat doesn’t have windows because of the blast wave. It also blew off the hinges of one of his doors.
Russia launched the first wave of drone attacks on Kharkiv today at about 05:20 to 05:45 a.m. After this attack, a child with severe injuries and five adults with moderate injuries were hospitalized.
Evhenii lives in the Slobidskyi district of the city. Here, Russian drones damaged a kindergarten, multiple shops and stalls, a building of civilian business, and blasted away hundreds of windows in nearby high-rise apartment buildings.
In Shevchenkivskyi district, two Russian drones hit a high-rise. Every resident of it has been evacuated by the rescuers.
Andrii wasn’t at his flat in that high-rise during the attack — he received a call in the morning and got here to gather his belongings.
“As far as I heard, the apartment above me burned down entirely,” Andrii says.
He noticed that the bathroom — unlike the windows and the ceiling that got cracked — was intact. ”Occurred to be quite the safe place for such a case.”
When the shelter is far away or inaccessible during airstrikes, Ukrainians hide in bathrooms during airstrikes. Often, that is the only place in the flat that allows them to put two walls between them and the windows. Sometimes, that helps.
Preliminary investigation showed Russians used Geran-2 drones for attacks on Kharkiv.
At about 10:20 a.m., Russia launched another six drones at the city — now, at the Kholodnohirskyi district. They hit, once again, residential quarters and a draft office — the latter lately became a new tactic across Ukraine.
This attack damaged 20 multy-storey residential buildings and smaller homes — burned out entire floors in some of them, damaged dozens of cars, and transport infrastructure.
“We were at home, then we heard this sound, — and it’s the first time, (drones are flying) often here. We got to the first floor and hid. Heard the sound of the drone falling, and then a loud, loud sound. After the first, everything was blasted out, and then the second one, third one… We thought that that one’s flying right to us,” Inna says.
Inna moved here from North Saltivka, a neighbourhood in Kharkiv that was the most damaged by Russian aggression in 2022, to live with her relative Maryna. Now, the only place left undamaged in their apartment is an inner room without windows.
“It’s an old city ceter,” Maryna says to Gwara. “We haven’t had any strategic objects here and we don’t plan to.”
Valerii, another local, managed to hide in the basement during the attack, but the shrapnel from the blast still wounded his hand.
Dmytro Chubenko, the spokesperson for the regional prosecutor’s office, said Russians are trying to “morally and psychologically impact the city locals.”
“Usually, Russians attack at night, when drones are hard to find under the black sky. It’s been a long time since they hit Kharkiv during the day,” he said to Gwara.
After these drone attacks, Russians manufactured a fake saying it’s Ukrainian air defence that hits residential quarters of the city, and their attacks are targeted towards “military objects.” The Center for Countering Disinformation debunked it by publishing the video of Russian drones hitting a residential high-rise in the city.
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