President Zelenskyy calls for international response as Russian attack targets civil and energy infrastructure.
Published March 7, 2026
A Russian missile attack killed at least 10 people, including two children, after hitting a residential apartment block in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
The attack brought down an entire entrance section of the five-story building, from the first to the fifth floor, trapping residents under the rubble, the Kyiv Post reported.
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Among the dead were a primary school teacher and her son, a second-grade student, as well as a 13-year-old girl and her mother, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Sixteen other people were injured on Friday.
Emergency crews were still sorting through the rubble on Saturday, and authorities warned that survivors could still be trapped.
The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said preliminary results indicate that Russia deployed the Izdeliye-30 cruise missile in the attack and opened a war crimes investigation.
The attack on Kharkiv was part of a broader overnight assault, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched 29 missiles and 480 drones, targeting energy facilities in kyiv and other central regions, and damage was reported in at least seven locations across the country.
‘Savage blows’
Air defense systems shot down 19 missiles and 453 drones, Zelenskyy said.
“There must be a partner response to these savage attacks on life,” Zelenskyy wrote in X, calling on the European Union to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses.
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said in X that it was “another massacre of children by the Russians.”
The attack comes as US-brokered peace negotiations remain stalled.
Zelenskyy visited front-line positions near Druzhkivka on Friday and told troops that strength on the battlefield would determine Ukraine’s participation at the negotiating table. The battlefield landscape has changed in Kyiv’s favor in recent weeks.
The Institute for the Study of War assessed that Ukrainian forces have recaptured 244 square kilometers (94 square miles) in southern Ukraine since January, while Russian territorial gains in February hit their lowest level in 20 months.
The institute also noted that Russian forces in the Kharkiv region appear to be regrouping ahead of a possible spring offensive, and that the intensity of fighting has decreased in recent weeks.
