Russia attacks Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv

(Reuters) – Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s two biggest cities on Sunday, with rocket fragments falling on a residential building in a Kiev suburb and one person killed by a guided bomb in Kharkiv.

More than 28 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces continue to carry out regular attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.

Attacks on Kyiv are less frequent than on other cities, although the capital suffered a series of attacks in March. Kharkiv is regularly attacked, but military analysts say the frequency has decreased since the US authorized Ukraine to use its weapons against certain Russian targets.

In the Kyiv suburb of Obolon, the local military administration said falling fragments from a Russian missile had sparked a fire on Sunday and damaged balconies of a 14-story residential building.

Emergency services wrote on the messaging app Telegram that five female residents had been treated for stress and Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 10 residents had been evacuated.

Rescue workers posted a photo online showing at least four charred balconies.

The head of the Kyiv region’s military administration said rocket fragments had also landed outside the capital, causing injuries and damage, but no further details were given.

In the first weeks of the invasion in February 2022, Russian forces were prevented from advancing on Kyiv and redeployed along the 1,000-kilometer front line in the east.

In Kharkiv, which never fell into Russian hands in the early stages of the war, a guided bomb sparked a fire outside a depot on Sunday and killed a delivery driver.

According to regional governor Oleh Synehubov, nine people were injured, including an eight-month-old baby. Pictures published on the Internet show the depot and the trucks parked in front of it badly damaged.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post that Russia had dropped more than 800 guided bombs on Ukrainian targets last week. In his evening video address, he again called for better weapons systems.

“The faster the world helps us deal with the Russian warplanes dropping these bombs, the faster we can attack Russian military infrastructure – and rightly so … and the closer we get to peace,” he said.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Bogdan Kochubey; Editing by Leslie Adler)