Death toll in Kharkiv attack rises to 14, Selensky warns of Russian troop movements

SAMYA KULLAB, Associated Press

25 mins ago

Firefighters extinguish a fire after two guided bombs hit a large building materials store in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, May 25, 2024. The sign reads “Garden Center.” (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday that Russia was preparing to intensify its offensive along Ukraine’s northern border after the death toll in a bomb attack on a major building materials store in the city of Kharkiv rose to 14.

In the bombing of Kharkiv on Saturday afternoon, 43 people were injured and 16 missing, said the governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, initially after the attack.

In a video message from Kharkiv, Zelensky said Russia was preparing an offensive 90 kilometers northwest of Ukraine’s second-largest city. He said the Russians were “assembling another group of troops near our border.”

He did not provide any information on where the troops will be concentrated, but Ukrainian government officials have expressed great concern about the Sumy region. Both the city of Kharkiv and Sumy, with their approximately 250,000 inhabitants, are about 25 kilometers from the Russian border.

Moscow’s troops have been capturing villages in the Kharkiv region in recent weeks as part of a large-scale offensive. Analysts believe they may try to get within artillery range of the city. Since the offensive began on May 10, Ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than 11,000 people from the region.

Russian forces are carrying out attacks along the 1,000-kilometer-long front line. Open fighting is taking place in the direction of Khasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. According to a statement by the Ukrainian General Staff, “the intensity of hostilities there is quite high.” “The defense forces are taking measures to prevent the enemy from advancing,” the statement said.

Russia launched large-scale missile and drone attacks on large parts of Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian authorities said air defense units intercepted 31 Shahed drones and 12 cruise missiles fired by Russia in the regions of Mykolaiv, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Zaporizhia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia and Chernihiv.

In total, Russia fired 14 missiles and more than three dozen drones, according to a statement by the Ukrainian Air Force. It is unclear what damage the missiles and drones that were not fired caused.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which lies across the border from Ukraine, said four people were injured in Ukrainian attacks overnight. The Russian Defense Ministry said seven drones were shot down over the Kursk region and three over Oryol, both north of Belgorod.

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Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.