Russia attacks Ukraine’s former capital, kills 11 amid peace talks

Russian shelling killed at least 11 civilians in Ukraine’s second most populated city Kharkiv on Monday, the regional governor said, adding that dozens more were wounded.

The shelling comes on the fifth day of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and one day after Ukrainian troops repelled an attack on Kharkiv by Moscow’s army.

“The Russian enemy is bombing residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no positions of the armed forces,” Oleg Sinegubov, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“As a result of the bombardments that are ongoing, we cannot call on the emergency services… currently there are 11 dead and dozens wounded,” he added.

The Kremlin said earlier on Monday that the Russian military’s main task was to ensure the safety of civilians.

But Russia has also accused nationalist groups in Ukraine of using civilians as human shields and the Ukrainian military of deploying heavy weapons to residential areas, as potential pretexts justifying civilian deaths.

AFP