KHARKIV, Ukraine: A Russian guided bomb struck a high-rise apartment block on Wednesday evening in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing a child and injuring at least 29 people, officials said.
Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov said the child, 11, had been pulled from under rubble with serious head wounds and fractures, but medics were unable to save him. He had earlier said three people were trapped under rubble.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Syniehubov said the strike had triggered a fire and destroyed most of one entrance, making a huge hole in the building.
Reuters Television footage showed rescue teams picking their way through twisted piles of concrete and other building materials to bring out the injured and rush them into ambulances. Firefighters on long hoists tackled smoke billowing from shattered apartments.
Kharkiv remained in Ukrainian hands through the initial failed advance of Russian forces on the capital Kyiv in the early days of the February 2022 invasion. It has since become a frequent target of Russian air attacks.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack underscored the need for more military aid from Ukraine’s Western allies.
“Our partners can see what is happening every day,” he wrote on Telegram. “And in these conditions, every decision that is put off means, at the very least, dozens of lives and hundreds of Russian bombs used against Ukraine.”
Russian airstrike hits Ukraine’s Kharkiv, kills child, injures 29
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Russian airstrike hits Ukraine’s Kharkiv, kills child, injures 29
- President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack underscored the need for more military aid from Ukraine’s Western allies
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
