Russian bombardment kills seven and injures 77 in Kharkiv on August 30

A Russian strike on the northeastern Ukrainian City of Kharkiv killed seven people and injured 77, including 18 children, on August 30, 2024, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

Local officials said Russians hit a playground and killed inter alia a 14-year-old girl.

Regional head Oleh Sinehubov said on Telegram that at least 20 were in serious condition, with some requiring amputations. He added that the strikes had been launched from Russia’s Belgorod region, which sits just across the border.

“These streets are exclusively parks with large gatherings of civilians. This is a residential building. This is, again, mass terror against our civilian population,” Sinehubov commented.

As a result of Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Boris Stulov, an employee of the Pidhornyy Institute for Mechanical Engineering Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, was also killed.

A Ukrainian writer, musician, and soldier, Serhiy Zhadan posted on his Facebook that Russians killed 18-year-old artist Veronika Kozhushko.

“During the shelling of Kharkiv, Nika Kozhushko, a very young, sincere, and talented girl, was killed. An hour before her death, she sent her new drawing. In other words, her last drawing,” Zhadan wrote. 

An 18-year-old artist, Veronika Kozhushko, and her last drawing

Meanwhile, Russians struck the village of Cherkaska Lozova in the Kharkiv Oblast at 14:55 on August 31, 2024, leaving people dead and injured. A strike caused a house to catch fire, according to Sinehubov. 

“Two women have been killed: one has been retrieved from the rubble, the other died in an ambulance. Ten people, including two children, have been injured,” Sinehubov noted.

The Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office later reported that the number of casualties has risen to 11, and a 14-year-old girl is among them.

“Two women, both aged 41, were killed in the village of Cherkaska Lozova in [Russian] shelling. Another 11 civilians sustained injuries, including a 14-year-old girl. Several residential buildings and cars were destroyed and damaged. A fire broke out,” the prosecutor’s office reported.

On August 23, 2024, Ukrainian rescue workers retrieved another woman’s body from under the rubble of Kozacha Lopan village council in the Kharkiv Oblast. 

Viacheslav Zadorenko, head of the Derhachi District Military Administration, reported that the body of a 61-year-old woman was also retrieved at the site. The Russians used artillery and FPV drones to assault the police, rescue workers, and local citizens working at the site.

“The invaders cynically hit a car of the funeral services company with drones during the evacuation of the bodies of the dead,” he wrote. 

Three police officers suffered concussions and were taken to hospital. The State Emergency Service’s equipment, as well as a Derhachi city funeral services company, were both damaged.

According to BBC News, Ukraine’s Western allies have partly withheld permission for it to use their weapons to strike Russian territory for fear of escalating the conflict.

The UK has allowed much of the equipment it has supplied to be used to hit Russia, though it maintains an exception for long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

In May, the US allowed Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia, but only near the Kharkiv region and only to “hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them”.

It continues to refuse permission for strikes deeper into Russian territory.

To provide context, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, sits around 35 km (22 miles) from the Russian border and has been the target of frequent attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.