Ukraine says Russian attack killed 1, injured dozens in Kharkiv

The governor of northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region said Thursday that one person was dead and 29 others injured after a Russian missile strike on a residential building.

Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram that an 11-year-old was killed in the late Wednesday attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attack hit a nine-story building, and he reiterated his calls for more help in defending Ukraine.

“Partners see what happens every day,” Zelenskyy said. “In these circumstances, every delayed decision on their part means dozens or even hundreds more Russian bombs used against Ukraine. Their decisions are the lives of our people. That is why we must stop Russia together — and do so with all possible force.”

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said Thursday that Ukrainian air defenses downed a wave of drones targeting the Ukrainian capital overnight.

Popko reported on Telegram that falling debris from downed drones damaged two residential buildings and an administrative building.

Russian forces also attacked a strategic bridge across the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Estuary in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight, the Ukrainian military said Thursday. The assault included two ballistic Iskander missiles and eight guided missiles.

It was unclear whether the bridge, an important railway and car connection in the region, sustained any damage.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that it shot down 21 Ukrainian drones.

The intercepts took place over the Rostov, Kursk, Volgograd, Bryansk, Belgorod and Voronezh regions, and over the Black Sea, the ministry said.

And in the central Russian region of Bashkortostan, several fuel and energy facilities were targeted Thursday in a Ukrainian drone attack, regional Governor Radiy Khabirov said. The attack caused minimal damage and no casualties.

And in Ukraine, Russian forces captured the settlement of Yasna Poliana in the eastern Donetsk region, RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry. VOA could not independently verify the report.

North Korean troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-hyun, urged North Korea on Wednesday to withdraw from Russia an estimated 10,000 troops, which both countries believe are headed to fight alongside Russia in its war in Ukraine.

"They're doing this because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has lost a lot of troops, a lot of troops. And, you know, he has a choice of either getting other people to help him, or he can mobilize. And he doesn't want to mobilize, because then the people in Russia will begin to understand the extent of his losses, of their losses," Austin said during a joint news conference at the Pentagon.

The United States expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the war against Ukraine in the coming days, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.

More than a half-million Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale illegal invasion on February 24, 2022, U.S. officials say. Russia, they say, is now turning to pariah state North Korea to bolster its forces.

"Kim Jong Un didn't hesitate to sell out his young people and troops as cannon fodder mercenaries," Kim Yong-hyun said. "I believe such activities are a war crime that is not only anti-humanitarian but also anti-peaceful."

Western nations have expressed concerns about what Kim Jong Un's regime will get in return from Moscow for its troops. North Korea is under international sanctions for its illicit nuclear ballistic missile programs.

But Zelenskyy has slammed what he called his allies’ zero response to Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops.

“Putin is checking the reaction of the West. ... And I believe that after all these reactions, Putin will decide and increase the contingent,” Zelenskyy said Thursday in an interview with South Korea's KBS television channel. “The reaction that is there today is nothing, it is zero.”

The South Korean defense minister said it was likely that North Korea would seek nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology in exchange for the troops, escalating security threats on the peninsula and across the globe.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.