Overnight, a Russian attack on the city of Kharkiv resulted in the death of the mother of a Ukrainian high-jumper, who paid tribute to her today.
Kateryna Tabashnyk, age 28, disclosed that her mother was one of at least eleven civilians killed in two explosions that struck residential districts of Kharkiv overnight, with an additional forty injured in one of the worst nights of bombing since the beginning of the war. Tabashnyk, who is believed to be in Munich for the European Athletics Championships, posted a tribute on Instagram with a video of her bombed-out apartment and a statement directed at Russia that reads, “How I detest you.”
The apartment’s rubble contained one of Tabashnyk’s former competition bibs, which her mother had presumably retained as a prize.
She wrote, “My mother.” I adore you very much. The Russian world took the life of my mum. They “emancipated” me from my home and my entire life.
Thursday morning, Governor Oleh Synehubov released the fatal toll from the two attacks, stating that the first attack occurred late Wednesday night.
At least seven people were killed and twenty were injured when Russian bombs struck an apartment complex in the city’s Saltivka neighborhood, he claimed.
Then, in the early hours of Thursday, further explosives struck the village of Krasnohrad, killing at least four and injuring twenty others.
There are reportedly three children among the injured, including a 12-year-old.
Russia denied targeting people, claiming instead that it had destroyed a military camp and killed 90 “foreign mercenaries.”
In his nighttime address on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared of the attacks, “We will not forgive; we will avenge.”
‘A dormitory was targeted by a rocket strike…’ The structure was completely demolished. We are determining the precise number of fatalities and injuries.
A vicious and callous attack on civilians that has no justification and reveals the aggressor’s impotence.
Tamara Kramarenko, a resident of Kharkiv, reported that her dormitory was struck by a missile on Wednesday.
‘Bang, gray. Gray fog… we just have three windows left – nothing else! The steps began to collapse, and people began to assist one another,’ she told Reuters.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the eastern Donetsk region, stated on Telegram that three civilians had been killed in Russian attacks in the region over the previous twenty-four hours.
The attacks occurred only hours before President Zelensky was scheduled to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip.
To prevent a global food emergency, Zelensky is scheduled to negotiate an agreement to export grain and the safety of the Zaporizhia nuclear power facility.
Guterres landed in Lviv on Wednesday, close to the Ukrainian-Polish border, where the meetings will take place.
Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the United Nations, stated that Guterres will, among other things, discuss ‘his overall efforts to do what he can to essentially lower the temperature as much as possible with the various authorities.’
Since Russia’s invasion on February 24, Ukraine has been unable to export 22 million tons of maize and other grains that have been stranded in its Black Sea ports. Last month, Turkey and the United Nations helped broker an agreement that will allow Ukraine to export the grain. A separate agreement between Russia and the United Nations aims to remove obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilizer to international markets.
Due to the fact that Ukraine and Russia are key food providers, the war and the blockage of exports aggravated the global food situation tremendously.
Even though certain grain prices have already reverted to prewar levels, they remain much higher than they were before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Developing nations have been disproportionately affected by supply shortages and excessive pricing. Despite the fact that ships are now departing Russia and Ukraine, the food crisis continues.
This week, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Guterres’ travel to Ukraine will allow him to “witness the effects of a project firsthand.” that is so essential to hundreds of millions of people’
Dujarric added that he expected ‘the necessity for a political solution’ to be discussed during Thursday’s talks.