Russian missile strike kills 9 in Kharkiv; air raid alerts sound across Ukraine

A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has killed at least nine people, including two children, according to regional authorities.

In the eastern Kharkiv region, rescue teams recovered five bodies from the rubble of a residential apartment block hit by a ballistic missile, the regional governor said, as cited by AFP.




The overnight attack was part of a wider wave of Russian drone and missile strikes that triggered air raid alerts across large parts of Ukraine early Saturday.

Another person was killed in a separate strike in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Emergency workers continued search and rescue operations at the damaged site as authorities assessed the scale of the destruction.

"Following the enemy attack, part of a five‑storey residential building in the Kyivsky district of Kharkiv was practically destroyed. A nearby house was also damaged," the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, Oleg Synegubov, said through a post on Telegram.

In the Kharkiv region town of Chuguiv, Mayor Halyna Minayeva said a drone strike hit a house in the city centre, leaving two people injured, as cited by AFP.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional administration head Oleksandr Ganzha said one person was killed and another wounded in a strike on the Nikopol district. He added that Russian forces targeted the area around 20 times using drones, artillery and rockets.

In southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian drone strike injured a baby, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.

NATO member Poland said it scrambled military aircraft in response to the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine.

“Due to missile attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, military aviation has begun operating in our airspace,” the Operational Command of the Armed Forces said in a post on X.

Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, including residential buildings and energy facilities, as the war continues.

In a previous large-scale overnight attack on February 26, Russian strikes injured at least 28 people, according to local authorities, as cited by the Kyiv Independent.