UKRAINE, KHARKIV — “My mom is there!” A woman runs to the building damaged by a Russian bomb.
Around are shattered windows, one burning flat, ruined cafés, and a damaged car wash service. On May 22, at around 1:50 p.m., Russians attacked one of Kharkiv’s residential districts. People are searching for their relatives and their pets.
Russia attacks Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city 19 miles from the state border, frequently — even more so since the beginning of their new ground offensive from north and northeast of the Kharkiv region on May 10.
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s office reported that this Russian bomb attack injured 12 people. Four of them are in the hospital. The trolleybus’ driver has severe injuries to his legs — as of May 23, doctors managed to save one of his legs; the other had to be amputated.
A woman with a small child runs out of the building’s entrance. She’s shouting, and her daughter, with a plushie pressed to her chest, is crying.
The woman’s name is Tetiana. She says that during the explosion, she was at home with her husband, son, and daughter. As soon as they heard the explosion, the entire family dropped to the floor.
“The attack only impacted eardrums. It was very loud. Shocking. My child is crying because she’s scared. We’ve recently lived through [a Russian attack — ed.] in another district, and now it hit our yard. I can’t find our cat, though… I’ll look for her later,” Tetiana says.
Meanwhile, the rescuers are putting out the fire that caught the balcony on the fourth floor in the aftermath of the bombardment. People carry away the injured near the entrance to the apartment building.
A woman with shrapnel injuries follows them. A girl with a dog follows. The woman’s name is Eugenia. She was at her summer house for a few days, and arrived home just today.
“It recently hit near the building, but I thought it was a residential neighborhood. What could be wrong here?” a girl says.
During the explosion, she and her dog stood near the window.
The medics are working on-site. They are providing medical aid to the injured, along with psychologists.
Artem and his mom, Larysa, and their cat are standing in the yard. Artem was alone at home when the Russian glide bomb hit.
“I was in the far room. Before it hit, the light came down, and then came the bright yellow flash. Explosion. Windows blown out in the entire flat. Then, I heard people crying, asking for help,” Artem says.
After that, the boy called rescuers, and his mother was already running home.
“Thank God the cat is okay. He wasn’t injured. This entire time, he was with me,” Artem adds.
The café “Krug” [“Circle” from Ukrainian — ed.] is near the building that became an impact site of a Russian bomb. According to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia hit Kharkiv with a modified glide air bomb from Belgorod Oblast. Oleksandr Filchakov, the head of the Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office, said that Russia has hit the city with these munitions since March 2024.
The car wash service and another café, “Miata” [“Mint” from Ukrainian — ed.] were nearby. Its employee Aliona told Gwara that, during the explosion, café staff were putting up the curtains on the summer terrace, preparing to greet guests.
“[We heard] a loud sound and thought it was an airplane. When we heard the explosion, we dropped on the floor. Cars started to explode. After another several minutes, we ran to the basement. It’s a miracle we’ve survived, and no one was injured,” the woman says.
Earlier, Russia destroyed Aliona’s house in Derhachi. Today, she says, is “her third birthday.”
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Russian bombardment in this district damaged two high-rise apartment buildings, a café, a car wash, and several civilian cars. Another café was destroyed to the ground.
At about the same time, at 1:50 p.m., a second glide bomb hit a civilian enterprise in Kharkiv’s Kholodnohirskyi district.
Daria Lobanok and Denys Klymenko worked on this story for you — thank you for reading it. Please consider supporting our reporting on Patreon, BMC, or PayPal to strengthen our Kharkiv-based newsroom and our efforts to show the world what Russia does to our home.
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