The mother of a high jumper from Ukraine was murdered in a Russian bombing on Kharkiv overnight, and the grieving athlete paid homage to her today.
28-year-old Kateryna Tabashnyk reported that her mother was one of at least 11 civilians killed in two explosions that struck Kharkiv’s residential districts overnight, leaving another 40 people injured. This was one of the worst bombing nights since the conflict started.
In addition to a memorial and video of her bombed-out flat, Tabashnyk, who is said to be in Munich for the European Athletics Championships, also put a statement on Instagram that read: “How I detest you.” The remark was aimed to Russia.
One of Tabashnyk’s previous competition bibs, which her mother had presumably retained as a prize, was clearly visible amid the apartment’s wreckage.
“My mother,” she wrote. You have my undying love. My mother was murdered by the Russian culture. I was “liberated” from my house and my whole existence by [them].
On Thursday morning, Governor Oleh Synehubov reported the number of fatalities from the two assaults, stating that the first attack happened late on Wednesday.
According to him, Russian bombs struck an apartment building in the city’s Saltivka neighbourhood, killing at least seven people and injuring another 20.
Then, in the wee hours of Thursday, another explosives exploded, this time in the hamlet of Krasnohrad, where at least four people were killed and 20 more were injured.
One 12-year-old and three other kids are reportedly among the wounded.
Russia claimed it had blown up a military installation instead, killing 90 “foreign mercenaries,” while denying that it had targeted civilians.
In his nighttime speech on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared in reference to the assaults, “We will not forgive, we will take retribution.”
‘A dormitory was the target of a rocket strike…’ The structure was totally demolished. We are calculating the precise number of fatalities and injuries.
A cruel and opportunistic assault on innocent bystanders that has no justification and exposes the aggressor’s helplessness.
Tamara Kramarenko, a resident of Kharkiv, said a missile had struck the hostel where she stayed on Wednesday.
Gray, bang. We only have three windows left due to the grey fog. People began assisting one another as the stairs began to collapse, she told Reuters.
The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram that three people had died in the last day as a result of Russian airstrikes in the area.
Just hours before to President Zelensky’s scheduled meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, terrorist acts took place.
Zelensky will talk about the security of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility as well as an agreement to get grain out of the nation to prevent a worldwide food emergency.
The location of the negotiations, Lviv, is close to the border between Ukraine and Poland. Guterres travelled there on Wednesday.
According to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, Guterres would speak with the relevant authorities about, among other things, “his overall efforts to do what he can to basically decrease the temperature as much as possible.”
Turkey and the U.N. assisted in negotiating a deal last month that allows Ukraine to export 22 million tonnes of maize and other food that have been trapped in its Black Sea ports since Russia’s invasion on February 24.
Russia and the U.N. signed a separate pact to remove obstacles in the way of exports of Russian food and fertiliser to other markets.
Because Ukraine and Russia are important suppliers, the conflict and the obstructed shipments severely worsened the world food situation.
While certain grain prices have already decreased to their pre-war levels, they are still much higher than they were prior to the COVID-19 epidemic. Grain prices peaked during Russia’s invasion.
High costs and supply constraints have disproportionately hurt developing nations. The food crisis has not resolved, despite the fact that ships are currently departing from Russia and Ukraine.
According to U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’ visit to Ukraine would enable him to “witness first-hand the effects of an effort.” It affects hundreds of millions of people and is of the utmost importance.
‘The necessity for a political solution’ to the conflict would likely come up in the meeting on Thursday, Dujarric said.