At least 17 dead and dozens injured in Kharkiv after overnight shelling

Kharkiv, Ukraine. At around 9:30 pm on Wednesday, August 17 a dormitory came under fire in the Saltivskiy district, the largest residential neighborhood in the city, which has been under constant shelling since the beginning of the Russian invasion. According to preliminary reports from Oleh Synyehubov, head of the Kharkiv region, the three-story building was hit by a Russian Iskander missile (according to other reports, a Kalibr missile) and was completely destroyed.

Update: On Thursday evening, Governor Oleh Synyehubov reported that the toll from the overnight strikes on Kharkiv had risen to 17 dead and 42 injured.

12 people were killed and 20 injured (including at least one child). According to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor's office, the building was inhabited by hearing-impaired people; up to 40 people were there when the missile hit. Dmytro Haiduk, spokesman for the regional police department, published a video of the first minutes after the impact, which was shot by one of the rescuers. A child’s scream can be heard in the video: “My grandmother is stuck there.”

Resident Tamara Kramarenko told Suspіlne that the dormitory was not a specialized residence for the hearing impaired, but that there were people with disabilities among the residents. According to Kramarenko, she lost all her belongings as a result of the strike, “these [clothes] are all I have left, who’s going to help me? People got hurt, for what? What are we going to do now? I’m left with no apartment, no car, where should I go?”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the shelling of the dormitory, “a vile and cynical attack on civilians, which has no justification, and demonstrates the helplessness of the aggressor.” Oleh Synyehubov and Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov stressed that the building was not a military target. “This is an act of intimidation, genocide, this is real fascism. We will not forget and we will not forgive,” Terekhov said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba once again called for increased military support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia after the strike.

In the early hours on Thursday, August 18, another dormitory in Kharkiv was shelled. Two people were killed and 18 injured (including two children). According to Synyehubov, eight more rockets were fired at the city from Belgorod at around 4:30 a.m. local time. This time, in Kharkiv’s Kholodnohirskyi and Slobidskyi districts, where a community center burned down and a four-story dormitory partially collapsed.

The city of Krasnohrad in the Kharkiv region also came under fire overnight. According to Synyehubov, more than 10 buildings were damaged, while two civilians were killed, and two more injured, including a 12-year-old child. The regional head said it was “one of the most tragic [nights]“ for the Kharkiv region since the beginning of the war.

In a briefing on Thursday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the attack on Kharkiv was a “ground-based high-precision weapon” strike that destroyed a “temporary base for foreign mercenaries.” The ministry also alleged that “more than 90 militants” had been killed as a result of the strike.

Meduza cannot immediately verify all claims made by officials in wartime.