Three killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv as Russia bombs an apartment block

Attack launched as world leaders, including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gather in New York for the UN General Assembly.

Russia has hit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with guided bombs, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The targets of the Russian bombs were an apartment building, a bakery, a stadium. In other words, the everyday life of ordinary people,” said Zelenskyy on Tuesday, posting a statement on X about the attack, which also left dozens injured.

He posted a picture showing the facade of a nine-storey apartment block partially ripped off, the windows blown out and debris strewn across the street.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported that 31 were injured.

“People are still trapped under the rubble. One of the multistorey buildings suffered a direct hit. The rescue operation continues,” he wrote on Telegram.

The northeastern city of Kharkiv lies about 30km (18 miles) from the Russian border and has been pounded by Russian aerial attacks throughout the two-and-a-half-year war.

Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram that the nine-storey block had already been attacked by Russia at the start of the war.

“It was almost repaired, windows were installed, it was insulated, and prepared for the heating season. The enemy hit it a second time,” he said, adding that the section of the building that suffered most damage was housing 82 people.

In total, Russia launched eight guided bombs, six of which hit Kharkiv, according to regional prosecutors on Telegram.

Ukrainian air defences struggle to intercept the highly destructive bombs.

The afternoon assault was launched as world leaders, including the Ukrainian president, gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, discussing the wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.

“There is much discussion now at the UN General Assembly about collective efforts for security and the future,” said Zelenskyy. “But we just need to stop the terror. To have security. To have a future.”

Kyiv, which is pressing allies to allow deep strikes into Russia, says the most effective means of reducing the attacks is to target not the bombs themselves but planes and airfields hosting them.

“We are counting on the courage to allow us to attack military targets in enemy territory with Western weapons,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, commenting on Tuesday’s attacks.

Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian soldiers drove Russian forces out of a processing plant in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv border region, which had been occupied for four months, according to a statement from Ukrainian military intelligence.

The plant, a partly steel structure with some 30 buildings, had been a Russian stronghold in the country’s northeast since Russia launched a new push in the area in May.

Ukraine’s incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces are holding ground, was launched in part to ease pressure in the northeast by forcing Russia to divert its forces.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies