At least one person dies in Kharkiv as Pentagon announces $425 million in additional military assistance for Ukraine.
A Russian missile attack on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, hit a location used by police, killing at least one high-ranking officer and wounding 30 other people, police said.
Four civilians were among those injured in the Friday afternoon attack, according to a national police statement on the Telegram messaging app. He said Russian forces had deployed S-300 missiles.
“Today, the Russian enemy attacked a police station in the center of Kharkiv with two missiles, killing a police officer,” Ivan Vygivsky, head of the Ukrainian National Police, wrote on Facebook, naming the deceased as police colonel Andriy Matviyenko. .
He posted photos showing a huge crater next to a pile of rubble left from the building. In another image, a police officer had his head bandaged and blood on his face.
Footage posted on Telegram by Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, showed rescuers sifting through mounds of rubble.
Syniehubov said some of the injured officers were in serious condition. He said an attack on the city earlier that day had damaged an apartment block and several private homes.
Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million people, is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border and remains a frequent target of Russian airstrikes. On Wednesday, a Russian-guided bomb hit a multi-story residence, killing three people.
The city remained in Ukrainian hands during Russian forces' initial failed advance on the capital kyiv after their February 2022 invasion. But Moscow has increasingly used powerful glider bombs to attack Ukrainian positions along the line. of contact of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) and attack cities dozens of kilometers from the front line.
$425 million in US military aid
Friday's attack came the same day the United States announced an additional $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine as kyiv prepares to confront Russian forces augmented by North Korean troops.
kyiv faces new uncertainty amid reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia are approaching the border with Ukraine. About 8,000 are preparing to join Russia's fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
During a visit to kyiv last week, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said more military aid would be coming to Ukraine, and soon.
This new aid package includes weapons that will be drawn from existing US arsenals, including air defense interceptors for advanced domestic surface-to-air missile systems, ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems and 155mm artillery, and armored vehicles. and anti-tank weapons.
“The United States will continue to work… to meet Ukraine's urgent needs on the battlefield and defend against Russian aggression,” the US Department of Defense said in a statement.
The aid package announced by the Pentagon on Friday brings the total amount of military assistance the United States has provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022 to $60.4 billion.
