Two Russian missiles hit a residential area in the heart of Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, on Tuesday, dangerously wounding two persons and severely destroying many residences, according to local officials.
Search and rescue personnel were combing through debris to see if anybody else was injured. The mayor of the city reported that there were two "powerful explosions" and that at least ten homes were destroyed.
According to a post made by Ukraine's Emergency Services on the messaging app Telegram, one of the missiles struck a three-story structure.
Two buildings had their fires put out, while other structures and residences suffered damage.
One of the missiles struck a road, Regional Police Chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said to state television Suspilne.
Photos from emergency services were uploaded online, depicting workers sifting through heaps of broken construction materials, fighting flames, climbing ladders to reach damaged top stories, and assisting evacuated people onto minibuses.
Oleh Synehubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv, reported on the Telegram messaging service that 17 people had been hurt. Fourteen were in the hospital, two of them quite critically injured.
Although strikes on Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, have been frequent, the city has not been taken over by Russia throughout the almost two-year-old conflict.
