Russia kills 10 in Ukraine strike including children with new missile 

A Russian missile strike 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-storey building from the first floor to the fifth, trapping residents under the rubble, the Kyiv Post reported.

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 others were wounded on Friday.

Emergency crews were still combing through debris on Saturday, with authorities warning survivors may still be trapped.

The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said preliminary findings indicate Russia deployed the Izdeliye-30 cruise missile in the strike and has opened a war crimes investigation.

The strike on Kharkiv was part of a broader overnight assault, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Russian forces launched 29 missiles and 480 drones, targeting energy facilities in Kyiv and other central regions, with damage reported across at least seven locations nationwide.

Air defence systems downed 19 missiles and 453 drones, Zelenskyy said.

“There must be a response from partners to these savage strikes against life,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, calling on the European Union to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.

Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said on X that it was “another massacre of children by Russians”.

The attack comes as US-brokered peace negotiations remain deadlocked.

Zelenskyy visited front-line positions near Druzhkivka on Friday, telling troops that battlefield strength would determine Ukraine’s hand at the negotiating table. The battlefield picture has shifted in Kyiv’s favour in recent weeks.

The Institute for the Study of War assessed that Ukrainian forces have recovered 244 square kilometres (94sq miles) in southern Ukraine since January, while Russian territorial gains in February hit a 20-month low.

The institute also noted Russian forces in the Kharkiv region appear to be regrouping ahead of a possible spring offensive, with fighting intensity having decreased in recent weeks.