At least 38 people, including 12 children, were injured Tuesday when a missile struck a residential building in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region while a military funeral took place nearby.
What local officials believe to be a Russian Iskander missile landed in the small town of Pervomaisky at about 1:30 p.m., striking a residential building as people gathered nearby for the funeral of Oleh Fadeenko, a soldier who had been killed in combat near Bakhmut.
Major Maksym Zhorin, a former commander of the Ukrainian army, said Russia “targeted the site where the ceremony was taking place,” in a message shared on Telegram.
Local television footage showed bloodied residents amid a cloud of black smoke and a tall, multi-story residential building.
Officials said a 3-month-old was the youngest injured in the attack. The child’s condition was not immediately known.
About 100 people had gathered for the funeral, according to television footage. Some of the attendees appeared in uniform while others wore civilian clothes.
Oleg Synehubov, the Kharkiv regional governor shared pictures of the damaged building, smoky sky and overturned cars on Telegram.
Among the injured children are two infants aged 10 and 12 months, he said.
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No casualties had been reported thus far as a result of the strike, and most people were injured by broken glass, Deputy Mayor of Pervomaisky Anton Orekhov told Suspilne Kharkiv.
“At least half of the neighborhood is in an uninhabitable state,” Orekhov said.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said there were only residential buildings in the area, BBC reported.
Kostin told local media that the targeting of residential buildings would amount to another war crime from Russia.
“We weren’t at home, we went for a walk in the park. I don’t know what happened, I heard an explosion, probably a missile,” a local resident, who gave her name only as Alla, told Reuters.
“I only remember that when the explosion sounded, we were thrown up into the air. Then we continued walking, we saw blown-out windows everywhere, I saw cars on fire. I just can’t get a grip of myself, my legs are still shaking.”
Russia did not immediately comment on the attack, though Moscow has repeatedly denied deliberately attacking civilians — even as its missile and drone attacks have struck cities across Ukraine since the start of its invasion.
With Post wires
