Russian rockets strike center of Kharkiv: dead child retrieved from under rubble

Russian troops launched rocket attacks Friday on the center of Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv, the city mayor reported.

Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that all the strikes hit civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings. 

The impacts were recorded in the Kyivskyi and Osnovianskyi city districts. Russian rockets damaged two multi-apartment buildings and destroyed a three-story residential building. 

Firefighters have extinguished a 50-square-meter fire at the scene. First responders continue dismantling the debris of destroyed buildings. 

Mayor Terekhov said that a child may be under the ruins of a building hit by the Russian strike. During the rescue operation, a dead child was later found and retrieved from under the rubble. Terekhov expressed his condolences to the child's parents and relatives.

Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Dmytro Chubenko told Ukrinform that 20 people had turned to medical facilities for help.

"Mostly, people have shrapnel wounds from broken glass, bruises, wounds from stones, bricks, and glass falling on them," he said.

Later, the number of wounded increased to 23. The Kharkiv prosecutor's office reports that among them is an 11-month-old child.

The Khakiv residents woke up to the explosions and the sound of the siren simultaneously. The mayor suggested that the type of rocket Russian forces used to attack the city was "Iskander," which arrives quickly and gives very little time to react.

"The distance [between Kkarkiv and the Russian border] is very short," Terekhov said on the air of the national telethon.

Later, the national police in the Kharkiv region said the initial information indicates that the Russian forces used Iskander missiles. The prosecutor's spokesperson, Dmytro Chubenko, however, said that the investigation hadn't found out yet what weapons the Russians used.

"As for the types of missiles that were used, given the nature and scale of the destruction, it is a cruise or ballistic missile, the type of which is being determined by specialists," Chubenko said.

Ukraine's Air Force spokesperson, Colonel Yurii Ihnat, said to wait for the conclusions of the experts about the type of rockets.

Earlier, the Air Force recorded three groups of Russian attack drones in the sky over Ukraine, announcing an air alert in several Ukrainian regions. Ukraine's air defense downed 25 out of 33 Russian Shahed-131/136.

On Thursday, October 5, a Russian rocket attacked a cafe and grocery store in the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region.

51 people were killed, and six were injured. According to the regional prosecutor's office, all the victims are civilians, mostly women and elderly people.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the cafe at the grocery store hosted a memorial service for a Ukrainian serviceman at the time of the strike.

The United Nations and the Council of Europe condemned the Russian Federation's attack on the village of Hroza.