Rocket strikes kill 11 in Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, says regional official

LVIV (Reuters) -At least 11 people were killed on Monday in rocket strikes by Russian forces on residential districts of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the head of the regional administration Oleg Synegubov said.

The northeastern city, Ukraine’s second largest, has become one of the major battlegrounds since Russia invaded Ukraine last week in the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two. Synegubov said Russian forces were firing artillery at residential areas of Kharkiv where there are no Ukrainian army positions or strategic infrastructure. “This is happening in the daytime, when people have gone out to the pharmacy, for groceries, or for drinking water. It’s a crime,” he said.

Eleven people were killed on Monday and dozens wounded, he said. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the casualty figures. Earlier Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko said Russian rocket strikes on Kharkiv on Monday had killed dozens of people.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists. On Sunday, Ukraine’s health ministry said 352 civilians, including 14 children, had been killed since the beginning of the invasion.