By Jennifer Amarachi
At least, a dozen people were killed by aerial bombardments on Friday in border cities between Russia and Ukraine.
The bombardment coincided with Kyiv’s dismissal of its air force chief, a significant military reorganization.
After two and a half years of Russia’s invasion, both sides asserted that they had made progress on the battlefield.
Moscow in eastern Ukraine and Kyiv in its surprise attacked into western Russia’s Kursk area. Seven people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed in a Russian air strike on the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday afternoon, according to Ukraine’s interior minister.
Late on Friday night, rescue teams were still retrieving remains from the debris.
Pictures on social media showed a fire erupting after the strike and the upper stories of a multi-story residential structure torn apart. 18 children were among the at least 77 injured, according to the emergency services.
President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western allies of Kyiv to increase their assistance following the attack, which authorities claimed was carried out with a glide bomb.
“We need strong decisions from our partners to stop this terror,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
“We need long-range capabilities,” he added, referring to Kyiv’s appeals to allies to lift restrictions on the use of Western-supplied missiles inside Russian territory and deliver more longer-range weapons.
“We need the implementation of air defence agreements for Ukraine. This is about saving lives,” he added.
