KYIV (Reuters) – Russia bombed parts of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region on Wednesday, killing four civilians, including a six-year old girl and a priest, regional officials and the interior ministry said.
The 58-year-old priest was killed in the centre of the frontline city of Kupiansk after being buried under the rubble of a church that was hit, Kharkiv’s governor Oleh Synehubov said. A 39-year-old man in a nearby cafe was also killed.
At least 12 residential houses were damaged when Russia dropped FAB-500 bombs on the city, which is some 40 km (25 miles) from the Russian border, Synehubov said.
Five other people were wounded in what has become a war-ravaged ghost town as Russia’s self-styled “special military operation” enters its third year.
The Interior Ministry said a six-year old girl and her 48-year-old grandfather were killed in the village of Velykyi Burluk near Kupiansk.
Moscow says it doesn’t target civilians. The United Nations has confirmed more than 10,000 civilian deaths during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and says the real number is probably much higher.
Before the war, Kupiansk was a bustling railway hub with a population of about 30,000.
It was briefly occupied by Russian forces in the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, launched on Feb. 24, 2022, but it was recaptured by Ukraine in a lightning counteroffensive in the autumn of that year.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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