Thirteen persons, including international journalists, suffered injury when two Russian missiles targeted a hotel in Kharkiv, the second city of Ukraine, local police said on Thursday.
The strikes on Wednesday night coincided with accusations by both Moscow and Kyiv that the other had sharply escalated its attacks, resulting in the deaths of scores of civilians.
“Thirteen people were injured,” including a Turkish citizen and a Georgian, the prosecutor general’s office said.
“Two missiles hit a hotel in the centre of Kharkiv. There were no military personnel there. Instead, there were 30 civilians,” One of the wounded is in “very serious condition”, he said, adding that “Turkish journalists are among the victims”.
Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said S-300 missiles were fired from the Russian frontier region of Belgorod, adding that a 35-year-old man was hospitalised in serious condition”.
Several other buildings, including two apartment blocks, were also reported damaged in the latest strike.
“In addition to the hotel, residential buildings were affected — one communal, one private, a car dealership and a manufacturing enterprise,” Mayor Terekhov said.
Located about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the Russian border, Ukraine’s second-largest city has seen regular and often deadly aerial assaults.
Across the border, the Russian defence ministry said it had downed four Ukrainian drones over the Tula, Kaluga and Rostov regions.
Voronezh region governor Aleksandr Gusev also reported that a Ukrainian drone had hit “the roof of a non-residential building” overnight, although said there was “no harm done”.13 wounded in Russian strike on hotel in Ukraine
