UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Nov. 19 — “Everything was blown out. The front door was broken, the exit was blocked, and the emergency services rescued us,” said Yulia, who lives in a building damaged in a Russian drone attack on Kharkiv.
At night on Nov. 19, Julia was at home with her family when Russian forces launched 19 Geran-2 drones at the Slobidskyi, Osnovianskyi, and Nemyshlianskyi districts of Kharkiv.
According to governor Oleh Syniehubov, a Russian attack damaged apartment buildings, setting up a fire in one of them. Rescuers evacuated 48 people, including three children, from their smoke-filled homes.
The Kharkiv mayor, Ihor Terekhov, reported about 46 injured people in a Russian attack, including 9 and 13-year-old girls. Medics hospitalized those who had shrapnel injuries.
The press service of the Kharkiv military administration informed journalists that five people are currently in the hospital.
Russian attacks damaged residential buildings in the Slobidskyi district the most, with the blast wave blasting out windows and damaging roofs and facades of them.
The mayor also reported about problems with public transport and power supply in the city in the aftermath of the attack.
“They were hitting one after another for 15 minutes. These drones, which speed up, are especially scary. The rumbling was very loud,” says Oleksandr. He and his wife came to help their daughter, who lives in one of the damaged residential buildings.
The Russian drones also hit a building of an agricultural business, a supermarket, nearby shops, a garage cooperative, and a high school.
Leonid parked his car near the damaged supermarket. The blast wave blew out its windows. In the morning, the man taped them up and began cleaning up the debris. He says that during the attack, he was with his family in the hallway, but they felt like the blast wave kicked them up into the air.
Terekhov reported on the destruction of residential areas in the Osnovianskyi district. One drone detonated in the parking of a high-rise building.
According to Syniehubov, the Russian attack destroyed 31 cars, 16 houses, an emergency medical substation, two trolleybuses, a non-residential building, and an administrative building.
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