Russian Strikes Kill Three in Kharkiv, Including a Toddler

A drone strike killed the toddler, after a ballistic missile strike the previous night in the early hours of Monday, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said. "There's just a continuously growing number of residents that have bodily injury," he said.

Two more deaths were confirmed by the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, and six children aged 6 to 17 were reported among the wounded. Rescuers did manage to pull one woman alive from the rubble, he said. Rescuers were able to pull a woman alive from the rubble, but more people may be trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

Civilian Infrastructure Damaged
Kharkiv, which is near Ukraine's northeastern border with Russia, has been a frequent target of drone and missile attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The most recent missile strike shattered an estimated 1,000 windows and led some people to be evacuated, local emergency services reports said.

And in the neighbouring region of Sumy, Russian strikes injured two people, damaged a dozen or more homes and struck an education facility. Local officials said that Moscow had purposefully bombed civilian infrastructure in the dark of night.

International Pressure for a Deal
The new strikes occurred as official footsteps continued to echo abroad. U.S. President Donald Trump, who received Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, has called on Kyiv to make a deal with Moscow. "Russia is a very big country, and they're not," Mr. Trump added, urging Ukraine to agree to negotiations that would end the war.

Thousands of non-combatants have been killed since the fighting began, despite repeated denials by both Russia and Ukraine that they have been the target of attacks, with Kharkiv again suffering the most.