Kremlin missile kills one person and wounds 42 more after hitting apartment building in Kharkiv as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky calls for permission to strike Russian military sites

A Russian missile fired into an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, has killed one and wounded 42 more, amid calls from Volodymyr Zelensky for permission to directly hit Russian military strikes. 

The body of a 94-year-old was recovered from the ninth floor of the building, which suffered damage following the strike. Three children were among those injured, Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said, with other officials adding that residents may still be trapped underneath the rubble. 

Photos taken at the scene showed firefighters extinguishing flames from the top section of the building, with other emergency service workers taking civilians away from the area. 

Several elderly people, with serious injuries, were seen being led away from the building. 

Zelensky said in his nightly address this evening that three other guided bombs had struck villages in the Kharkiv, where population centres have been a frequent target of Russian attacks near the Russian border.

Several elderly people, with serious injuries, were seen being led away from the building

Photos taken at the scene showed firefighters extinguishing flames from the top section of the building

Odesa was also targeted as part of a tit-for-tat drone conflict, with two people tragically dying in the port city today, officials confirmed. 

Russia has denied intentionally targeting civilian populations, but Zelensky said the latest set of attacks underscored the need for Ukraine’s Western partners to provide weapons and air defence systems and permission to use weaponry on targets deep inside Russia to save lives.

Zelenskiy called for rapid decisions on long-range strikes ‘in order to destroy Russian military aviation right where it is based. These are obvious, logical decisions.

‘Every Russian strike of this nature, every instance of Russian terror, like today in Kharkiv…this proves that there must be long-range capability and it must be sufficient.’

He said appropriate decisions were expected in the first instance from the United States, France, Germany and Italy, ‘those whose decisiveness can help save lives.’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles.