Russian air strikes on Kharkiv and Kyiv kill five as Putin's thugs advance

Terrified residents spoke of "pure horror" after Russian air attacks killing a number of civilians in the Ukrainian second city of Kharkiv today - with separate strikes injuring six in the capital Kyiv.

In Kharkiv, Russia deployed a 500-kilogram bomb that severely damaged the 1928 Derzhprom building, one of the most famous Constructivist towers in the world and the first modern skyscraper completed in the former Soviet Union.

Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, called the concrete structure an architectural treasure for all of Ukraine. He said the strike by the Kremlin was “truly horrifying to see”.

“If we look back at World War II, even Hitler couldn’t do what the Russians have done,” he added.

In a later assault, some nine residential buildings were hit in the same city, including a hospital, killing four people, Ukrainian authorities said.

There were additional strikes using drones and missiles on other cities, including the capital where six people were injured.

In Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rih, the Russian military struck a residential district with a ballistic missile overnight, destroying a three-story building and damaging 20 more, including a hospital.

Local Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said: “Unfortunately, 14 people were injured, and a 39-year-old man died of severe open brain injury.

“Ten people are in the city's hospitals, the condition of one 60-year-old patient is serious, he is in intensive care, and the others are in moderate condition.”

Elsewhere, on the ground, marauding Russian forces were advancing further into several eastern Ukrainian towns, bringing them closer to capturing the key strategic city of Pokrovsk.

Both Russian and Ukrainian bloggers reported a rapid advance by the Kremlin military as its soldiers drove forwards.

"The enemy advanced in Selydove," DeepState, a group with close links to the Ukrainian army that analyses combat footage, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

It also posted a map indicating Russian troops in the town's southeast.

Russian forces have been storming the coal mining town of Selydove in Ukraine's Donetsk region for the past week.

Capturing it would pave the way for a Russian advance on the logistical hub of Pokrovsk 20 km (12 miles) northwest.

The Russian news outlet SHOT said on Telegram that Moscow's troop control 80per cent of Selydove.

The Russian-installed head of Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces had hoisted their unit's flag on the roof of one of the buildings in the town of Hirnyk, some 14 km south of Selydove, Russia's state news agency RIA reported.

Russian military bloggers also reported that Russian forces were close to taking over the town of Kurakhove, just southwest of Hirnyk.

Ukraine has not commented on the Kremlin gains.

But Ukraine's Armed Forces said that Kyiv forces had repelled 36 Russian attacks along the Pokrovsk frontline in the previous day, including in the area of Selydove, while several battles were still ongoing.

After Moscow's full-scale invasion in Ukraine in February 2022 failed to seize the capital Kyiv and win a decisive victory, President Vladimir Putin scaled back his war ambitions to taking the old industrial heartland in Ukraine's east known as Donbas, which covers the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Last month Russian forces advanced there at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia's Kursk region.