Russian guided bombs have killed at least two people and wounded 13 in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local officials say, as Russia continues its major military offensive in the region.
The target of Friday's bombs was not immediately clear, but the regional governor said the wounded were civilians.
“Of the 13 injured, four are in serious condition,” Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, and the surrounding region have long been the target of Russian attacks, but the attacks have become more intense in recent months, affecting civil and energy infrastructure.
Al Jazeera's John Holman, reporting from Kharkiv on Friday, said several attacks were heard and a “thick, black plume of smoke” could be seen.
“We still don't know what has been attacked: whether it is factories or residential infrastructure,” he reported, adding that the city had also suffered drone attacks.
“Yesterday there was actually 16 and a half hours of air raid alert. It is the longest invasion since the start of the large-scale invasion in 2022” by Russia against Ukraine, Holman said.
“There is a feeling that this region is being squeezed right now,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to reduce Kharkiv to rubble.
Moscow has denied deliberately attacking civilians, but thousands of people have been killed and injured since it began its invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that the offensive in the Kharkiv region, which sits on the border with Russia, is aimed at creating a buffer zone and that the Kremlin has no plans to capture the city of Kharkiv.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to China, Putin said Moscow launched its attacks in response to the Ukrainian bombing of the neighboring Russian region of Belgorod.
“I have said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a sanitary zone,” said the Russian leader. “That's what we're doing”.
He added that Russian troops were “advancing daily according to plan.”
'Under control'
Putin's comments were the first on the Kharkiv offensive, which began on May 10. The operation opened a new front in the war and displaced thousands of Ukrainians in just a few days.
The comments also came hours after a major Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula caused power outages in the city of Sevastopol after an earlier strike damaged aircraft and fuel storage at an air base. .
Russian authorities said Friday's attacks also set fire to a refinery.
Zelenskyy traveled to Kharkiv this week as the Ukrainian military said it had managed to partially stop a Russian advance.
In particular, the military said it had prevented Russia from taking Vovchansk, 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border.
“The situation in the Kharkiv region is generally under control and our soldiers are inflicting significant losses on the occupier,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post on Thursday.
“However, the area remains extremely difficult.”
New laws
Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, said he did not believe the Russian military had the number of troops needed to make a strategic breakthrough in the Kharkiv region and was confident Ukrainian forces would hold their lines there.
In an effort to increase troop numbers, Zelenskyy on Friday signed two laws, one to allow prisoners to join the military and another that increases fines five-fold for those who evade conscription.
The mobilization law comes into force on Saturday.
The legislation allows “conditional release to serve a sentence and subsequent enlistment for military service under a contract for a special period” for certain categories of people charged with criminal offenses.
It does not include those convicted of crimes against the national security of Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces are currently awaiting delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners.
Some military analysts consider lack of personnel to be Ukraine's biggest problem. Weapons supplies that have been significantly delayed, particularly from Washington, are expected to reach the front lines soon.
Denmark said it would send Ukraine a new military aid package, mainly air defense weapons and artillery, worth about 5.6 billion crowns ($815.5 million).
