UKRAINE, KHARKIV, May 21 — Russia hit Kharkiv with at least four Shahed drones and a missile, reports Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov in his Telegram channel. The administration’s spokesperson, Olena Shapoval, told Gwara Media that Russian attacks injured at least six people overnight and in the morning. 

Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, with a population of 1.2 million. Russia attacks it frequently with missiles, glide bombs, and drones because of its proximity to the border (18 miles) and frontline. 

Syniehubov says the debris from Iranian-made Shahed drones was discovered in four locations. 

At 2:01 a.m., drone crushing caused two private houses and garages to catch fire, injuring three people: a 61-year-old man and two women aged 69 and 72. All three had acute stress reactions and received help on the impact site. The other three drones hit a road, a sidewalk, and a minibus; the latter caught fire as well. 

Olena Shapoval told Gwara that another two people injured in a drone attack went to receive medical help on their own. 

At 7:05 a.m., Syniehubov says, Russia hit Kharkiv with a missile, targeting the object of transport infrastructure and injuring a 53-year-old man. 

On May 10, Russia launched a new ground offensive north and northeast of the Kharkiv Oblast. Since then, Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region have come under Russian missile, drone, and glide bomb attacks even more often. 

On May 19, a Russian glide bomb attack on Kharkiv injured two people and damaged burial sites and a gas station. 

The same day, Russia hit Cherkaska Lozova, a village in Kharkiv suburbs, with a double-tap missile strike, killing seven people, including a pregnant woman, and injuring 28, including a child. Preliminary investigation shows they used Iskander-M missiles. 

In a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs two Patriot systems to protect Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast. 

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