Ukrainian civilians bear brunt of Russia's accelerated missile attacks

KHARKIV, Ukraine - Missiles fired by Russia landed in four residential areas of war-torn Kharkiv wounding at least two people and causing massive material damage to civilian properties in the district of Saltvika, just ten minutes away from the city.

"While sitting in the bed with my husband, we heard emergency sirens on our mobile phones. We shut the doors and took shelter inside. A few minutes later, the attack happened and we were eventually taken out from under the rubble of the destroyed building," Olga Bidenko, a local woman who was injured in the missile attack together with her husband, recounted to Rudaw on Sunday. 

According to data from the Kharkiv local authorities, more than 3,000 have been destroyed by Russian forces.

Unlike Kyiv, damaged and destroyed buildings in Kharkiv have remained unrepaired, but only streets get cleared of rubble by locals and volunteers.

"It was a missile attack that was fired from the Russian missile system from the Ural [mountains]," Eugen Vasilenko - Press Officer of Kharkiv Region Rescue Service told Rudaw of the attack.

Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-largest city which is just 30 kilometers from the Russian eastern border. Before the Russian invasion, an estimated 1.5 million people used to live in war-torn city.

The Ukraine war has entered the fourth consecutive month with the country coming under regular bombardment.

Moscow's withdrawal from Kyiv and other western parts of the country regrouping in the east has shifted the conflict to one of the artillery battles and house-to-house fighting in the Donbas region including Kharkiv, a major cultural and industrial center of Ukraine.

Cameraman: Ahmed Younus