Russia strikes Kharkiv hours after accusing Ukraine of shelling border city in retaliation

Twin Russian missile strikes on central Kharkiv Saturday injured at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said.

The Kharkiv regional chief prosecutor said two boys aged 14 and 16 and a security adviser for a team of German journalists were among those injured. The missiles came from the direction of the Russian border city of Belgorod, he added.

Hours earlier, Russian officials said shelling in the centre of Belgorod killed 20 people, including two children, and injured 111 more.

Russian officials accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, which took place the day after Russia unleashed its biggest air attack of the war — an 18-hour aerial barrage across Ukraine that killed at least 39 civilians.

The head of the regional police in Kharkiv, Volodymyr Tymoshenko, said preliminary evidence suggested Russia had used S-300 missiles as surface-to-surface weapons to hit Kharkiv.

One missile hit the Kharkiv Palace Hotel, and the second hit a residential building in central Kharkiv. Another three hit an industrial area but caused no damage, Tymoshenko said.

Oleh Synehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, said 10 of the victims were in hospital, and one woman was in a serious condition.

“We are fixing damage to a medical institution, multi-apartment residential buildings, shops, public places and transportation,” Synehubov said.

Belgorod attacks ‘will not go unpunished’: Russian Defence Ministry

Images of the earlier attack on Belgorod circulating on social media showed cars set alight and plumes of black smoke rising among damaged buildings as air raid sirens sounded. Strikes hit close to a public ice rink in the heart of the city, also reaching a shopping centre, residential buildings and a car.

Speaking on social media Saturday, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the consequences of the strike as the worst the city had faced since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago. 

The United Nations has said more than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine — though it cautions the actual figure may be much higher — and more than six million have been displaced.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it identified the ammunition used in the strike as Czech-made Vampire rockets and Olkha…