Russia bombards schools in Kharkiv

As Russia’s indiscriminate attacks against Ukraine continued as of Friday (local time), experts projected that the number of civilian victims will reach the 1,000 threshold sooner or later. The G7 nations condemned Russia’s shelling on civilians as a war crime, signaling further sanctions.

Merefa, a village on the outskirts of Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, reported at least 21 deaths on Thursday following Russia’s bombardments on schools and community centers. Barabashova Market, the world’s largest of its kind with an area of 300,000 square meters, was reduced to ashes by the invaders’ attacks. The fire spread to adjacent residences caused the death of a firefighter who was on the mission of extinguishing the fire.

As many as 350,000 citizens have evacuated and hidden in air-raid shelters and basements amid the endless attacks in the southern port city of Mariupol. The city authorities said that the urban area is bombarded with up to 100 bombs on average a day, adding that four-fifths of buildings in residential areas are left devastated with 30 percent of the affected facilities unrecoverably destroyed. Not any rescue actions have not been taken for Mariupol Theater with 1,200 civilians primarily such as children and pregnant women inside since it was broken down by air-raid attacks on Wednesday due to the ongoing Russian attacks.

Since Russia invaded into Ukraine on Feb. 24, the number of civilian deaths including 58 children has reached at least 780, which is expected to exceed 1,000, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The World Health Organization also announced that 12 deaths were reported during this period as Russia carried out at least 43 attacks on medical facilities such as hospitals, etc.


Youn-Jong Kim zozo@donga.com