UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Jun. 9 — In the night, Russian forces conducted a massive drone attack on Kharkiv, hitting the Shevchenkivskyi and Kholodnohirskyi districts of the city, said Ihor Terekhov, Kharkiv’s mayor, to Gwara Media.
Terekhov said that, in total, Russian drones hit the city 11 times across these districts, injuring 15 people, including two children, and damaging 27 apartment buildings.
Gwara Media’s journalists were at three locations in the Shevchenkivskyi district to document the consequences of Russian attacks.
“Mom, pick up the dog. The floor is covered in glass. It might cut her paws,” said Valeria, who lived in the damaged building. She lived with her mom, dog, and parrot. She said that, when a Russian drone struck their apartment, hitting the living room wall, the parrot’s cage was right next to it. “Unfortunately, the parrot died.”
During the attack, the family went out into the building’s entrance hall. As Valeria explained, she usually goes out into the apartment’s corridor when she hears the air raid siren, but this time the explosions were so loud that she, her mother, and their dog went out of the apartment.
The blast wave injured her mother’s leg — she was standing up when the drone hit, and the explosion threw her to the wall. Valeria herself was sitting on the floor with her dog, so both of them experienced acute stress reactions.
When Valeria entered the apartment after the attack, she saw that everything in her room had been turned upside down. All the windows had been blown out. A fire had started in the living room. The family was left with almost nothing. They have nowhere to move to and are currently planning to stay in a dormitory, which was offered by the city council.
Borys lives next to the damaged building. He said he heard about six explosions nearby. The attack also damaged cars parked close to the apartment building.
First, one car caught fire, and the flames began to spread to the others. Locals put out the fires themselves until the rescue workers arrived, Borys said.
“When the attack began, I was sitting in the kitchen and saw a toaster fly past me from the windowsill into the corridor,” described Dmytro, a local of another apartment building in the Shevchenkyvskyi district.
The man said that his family had asked for medical help because of the acute stress reactions. His children, who were asleep during the attack, were scared. Their bed was right under the window, and glass rained on them after the explosion. As Dmytro said, a curtain saved them from more serious injuries.
Dmytro’s house is located across from an office complex — the roof of the building was hit by a Russian drone and all the windows there was damaged.
According to Volodymyr, the owner of the company that rents office space in the complex, there is also the Honorary Consulate of France in Kharkiv in the building, and it was not damaged during the attack.
Another Russian drone hit a restaurant near Sarzhyn Yar, one of the most popular recreational spots among Kharkiv locals. The attack destroyed the building and damaged the church across the street.
Volodymyr, one of the parishioners, said that the blast wave destroyed part of the roof in the church, the fence, and the church walls. He also said that the attack was at night, so no one was injured.
Also, during the night, Russian forces attacked Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv oblast with missiles, killing three, including pregnant women.
Read more
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