KYIV: Russian air strikes hit the Ukrainian capital and other cities on Tuesday, local officials said, killing at least six people and wounding more than 70 as Moscow’s war approaches its third year.

Five of the dead as well as 51 wounded were in the eastern city of Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.

Rescue workers dug through rubble to search for survivors there, Mayor Ihor Terekhov told local television. He said 30 apartment buildings had been damaged in the early-morning strikes.

A gas pipeline in Kharkiv was also damaged, state energy firm Naftogaz said. Thousands of residents were left without power after electricity infrastructure was damaged, the energy ministry reported.

In Kyiv, where the blasts of air defence pierced the morning calm, officials said up to 22 people including three children had been wounded across at least three districts. Several apartments and non-residential buildings had also caught fire.

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At one site, rescuers tended to dazed and groaning victims as workers swept away debris and broken glass.

“There was a very loud bang, and my mother was already running outside, shouting that we need to leave. We all went to the corridor,” said local resident Daniel Boliukh, 21.

“Then, we went on the balcony to have a look, and saw all these buildings were on fire.”

Some of the damage in Kyiv occurred next to the United Nations office, resident coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement.

Russia has carried out regular air strikes on cities and civilian infrastructure far behind the front lines since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Its troops, meanwhile, are attacking in several parts along the sprawling eastern front and are seeking to seize the initiative, Ukraine’s military says.

Shot down

Tuesday’s strikes also killed one person in the southeastern city of Pavlohrad, the regional governor said.

Ukraine’s air force said the military had destroyed 21 out of 41 missiles of various types fired by Russia. Nearly 20 had been shot down over Kyiv, a city spokesman said.

A Ukrainian general, Serhiy Naiev, posted a video which he said depicted air defence forces shooting down a Russian missile with a machinegun.

Kyiv has repeatedly called for higher quantities of advanced air defence systems from its Western partners as it struggles to defend itself from Russian strikes.

Moscow’s forces have increasingly employed a mix of air- and land-based missiles that are more difficult to shoot down.

“The world must understand that this terror can only be stopped by force,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram.

Officials in the northern region of Sumy also said critical infrastructure had been damaged by a missile strike on the city of Shostka.

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday it had struck enterprises producing missiles, explosives and ammunition.