Fatal strikes rock Kharkiv as Russia claims fresh advances

Russian strikes on Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv killed at least seven people, authorities said Thursday, as Moscow claimed fresh advances on the front line.

The surrounding region of Kharkiv has become the latest flashpoint of the war after Russian forces launched a surprise ground offensive in the northeast border territory this month, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.

The barrage of more than a dozen projectiles came as Moscow said it captured Andriivka in the industrial Donetsk region, one of the few villages Ukraine wrested back in its lacklustre counteroffensive last summer.

Kiev's forces are suffering manpower and ammunition shortages and struggling to hold off Russian attacks.

Emergency workers were clearing debris, extinguishing flames and retrieving victims from the rubble in the aftermath of the latest attack on Kharkiv, images distributed by Ukrainian officials showed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the barrage as "brutal" and said Russia was "taking advantage" of Ukraine's lack of air defence systems to launch fatal attacks on towns and cities at his country's border.

The regional governor said seven people had been killed and that another 16 were wounded.

Ukraine's national railway operator said civilian railway infrastructure had been hit in Kharkiv and the surrounding region in the aerial assault and that six employees had been wounded.

Regional authorities said a printing press had also been damaged.

  Ukraine 'lacks' air defences 

Kharkiv, which is the second-largest city in Ukraine and lies just dozens of kilometres from the border with Russia, has been under persistent shelling since Moscow's forces invaded in February 2022.