Heavy shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine's 2nd-largest city Kharkiv, residential areas attacked

Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said the administration building in the centre of Kharkiv came under heavy Russian shelling Tuesday along with residential buildings.

Image Credit: Reuters

Kyiv: The Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday claimed that the centre of the country's second-largest city Kharkiv has been badly hit by renewed Russian shelling. Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said the administration building in the centre of Kharkiv came under heavy Russian shelling along with other residential buildings. 

Sinehubov didn't give any specific numbers of casualties from the latest shelling. Previously, Sinehubov had said at least 11 people were killed and scores of others were wounded in the shelling in Kharkiv on Monday.

He said Ukrainian troops are fending off Russian attempts to advance on the city of 1.4 million people. Videos posted on Ukrainian social networks and media showed a massive explosion next to the towering Soviet-era administrative building on Kharkiv's central square hitting several cars parked in front of it, shattering windows but leaving the building largely intact. 

Sinehubov said that Russia launched GRAD and cruise missiles on Kharkiv but that the city defence was holding. "Such attacks are the genocide of the Ukrainian people, a war crime against the civilian population!" he said.

Wearing a flak jacket and a helmet, Synegubov said in a video posted on social media “that it was too early to know the number of casualties.”

The mayor of Ukraine`s Mariupol also confirmed that the southern port city was under constant shelling which had killed civilians and damaged infrastructure, as Russia started day six of its invasion.

"We have had residential quarters shelled for five days. They are pounding us with artillery, they are shelling us with GRADS, they are hitting us with air forces," Vadym Boichenko said in a live broadcast on Ukrainian TV.

"We have civilian infrastructure damaged - schools, houses. There are many injured. There are women, children killed," he said. 

Ukraine`s largest steelmaker Metinvest BV has most of its facilities located in Mariupol where it has halted production. The company sent most workers home while reduced shifts ensured the equipment production was not breaking down.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour`s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.