25 injured in Russian glide bomb strike on Kharkiv

At least 25 people have been injured in a Russian strike on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

According to local officials, preliminary inspections showed a KAB guided aerial bomb hit a 12-story apartment building, causing extensive damage.

“The entrance of a multi-storey building, from the third to the first floor, was destroyed, the slabs collapsed,” said Yevhen Ivanov, Deputy Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.

“A search operation is currently underway to make sure there are no people under the rubble.”

A child was among the injured, local officials said.

And in the neighbouring region of Donetsk, at least four houses and 180 apartments have been damaged in Russian strikes on the town of Mykolaivka.

The deputy head of the Mykolaivka military administration, Volodymyr Proskunin, said five of the apartments have been damaged beyond repair but that work is currently under way to restore gas and electricity to undamaged homes.

“We have prepared an order today, by the decision of the city commission for safety and emergencies, to preserve these apartments so that unauthorised persons do not have access to them and it is possible to keep them as warm as possible for the neighbours,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said his country needs more help to fight back against Russia’s military might, even as uncertainty deepens about how much Western aid Ukraine can expect after Donald Trump was elected this week as the next US president.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began almost three years ago, Moscow’s military has repeatedly used its superior air power to hit civilian targets. 

More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations. 

Meanwhile, a crowd of mourners have lit torches and intoned a military chant to honour a Ukrainian medic and a soldier who fell in love while on the frontlines of the war and died together in a Russian shelling attack.

The funeral took place in the capital Kyiv, at a crematorium often used for funerals of the war dead.

Valentyna Nahorna, whose callsign was ‘Valkiria’, volunteered as a medic at the start of the war.

She and Daniil Liashkevych, known as ‘Berserk’, fell in love just a few months ago, their friends said, and it helped them endure the war.

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They both worked in the 3rd Assault Brigade and were killed on 4 November.

Those gathered gave the chant that Ukrainian soldiers learn by heart when they first start training: “Burn with fire, life-giving, the weakness in my heart. Let me know no fear, nor doubt.”

Kostyl, who like many Ukrainian soldiers agreed to be identified only by his call sign, said meeting Valkyrie helped Berserk.

“He finally had a soulmate who also wanted to fight with him and be as close to the war as possible. But this was their last time together and no one is safe from that,” he said.

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Dvyetshnik, a 3rd Brigade soldier who knew the medic well, described her as fearless and willing to learn anything.

“She was very genuine, regardless of who was talking to her, whether it was a colonel or a company commander,” he said.

“She was very sincere and real with everyone and I will miss her very much.”