A Russian rocket strike on the village of Pechenigy in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region has killed 10 people and injured 17, triggering a pledge of retaliation from President Volodymyr Zelensky.
KYIV: A Russian attack on a village in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine killed 10 people, Kyiv said Tuesday, vowing to respond.
The strike comes amid a surge in civilian deaths in the four-and-a-half-year war.
Russian forces “carried out a rocket strike on Pechenigy”, a village around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Russian border, Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said on social media.
“According to preliminary information, 10 people were killed,” he added, with 17 people wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media that the strike hit a busy intersection, “a location with a post office and stores, surrounded only by residential buildings”.
Images from the site of the attack posted by the Ukrainian emergency services showed rescuers working at the scene, carrying people to safety amid destroyed buildings, smouldering rubble and cars on fire or reduced to charred shells.
“We will definitely respond to this Russian strike. And it is equally important that our partners also complement our… responses with their own actions to put pressure on Russia and support Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
The Kharkiv region — parts of which are occupied by Russian forces — has been hit hard since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
According to the United Nations, more civilians have been killed in the war in recent months than in any period since the start of the invasion.
