Exclusive
DEATH & DESTRUCTION
Harrowing moment Sun team’s caught up in Kharkiv blitz with bodies buried in rubble after Vlad launches remorseless raid
Watch The Sun's dramatic video from the scene of the deadly Kharkiv blitz
UKRAINE'S second largest city was pounded by a rush-hour missile blitz yesterday that left at least seven dead and scores injured.
At least 15 S-300 surface-to-air missiles were fired at the sprawling metropolis as Russia's frontline assault stalled.
13
13
13
13
Loud explosions rang out across the city - one quickly followed by another - as terrified residents ran for underground bomb shelters.
Thick plumes of smoke rose across the skyline at a series of locations as Russia terrorised the very heart of the city.
The Sun's team was among the first at the scene of the deadliest attack which destroyed the Kharkiv Vivat printing house.
We joined brave firefighters, exhausted by the relentless bombardment of recent weeks, to clamber through the rubble as smoke billowed skywards.
Read more on Kharkiv
Concrete blocks, shattered glass and twisted metal littered the ground as the building revealed the exact entry point of the rocket.
The charred remains of a woman lay nearby as firefighters doused the flames.
Another victim, a bearded man in his 40s, lay lifeless on an ambulance trolley outside before he was transferred to a body bag.
Others tragically followed as the pile of corpses from this indiscriminate morning rocket attack increased.
Most read in The Sun
Ukraine's war crimes prosecutors took photos and sifted through the smouldering debris to locate the warheads shrapnel.
They were photographed as the case against Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin grew.
Inside Ukraine’s secret frontline base where Brit & US soldiers have trained 14k troops to blitz Russia
We were then forced to run for cover amid alerts of a 'double tap' attack before a rocket was downed over Dnipro.
The firefighters took a moment to breathe as tears streamed down their faces from the intensity of the smoke.
Kharkiv's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, told me: "Kharkiv is an indomitable city, a hero city, we are a Ukrainian city
"We hold on, we will endure. Yes, we are going through very difficult times - but together we will win.
"This is a very dark day for our city but brighter days are ahead."
The mayor added: "These dark days won't defeat us."
He said 50 people were in the Kharkiv Vivat premises - which prints school notebooks for kids - when it was struck.
He fumed: "This place has nothing to do with the military.
"Seven people have died and 16 who were wounded are now receiving treatment in hospital."
13
13
13
Oleh Synehubov, the head of Kharkiv's military administration, said: "This was an extremely brutal Russian attack.
"According to preliminary data, 15 rockets were fired at once.
"Russian terrorists take advantage of the fact that Ukraine still lacks sufficient anti-aircraft defence.
"This weakness is not ours - but the whole world's. Terror must lose everywhere."
Air raid sirens continued to wail throughout the day after the city was rocked by the explosions amid intense battles in the nearby border towns of Vovchansk and Lyptsi.
Fire chief Eugene Vasylenko said: "The people of Kharkiv, what can I say, they are heroes.
"They constantly withstand these blows and are under constant threat.
"Unfortunately, the enemy continues to bombard the city and tries to further intimidate people.
"We will never give up or get scared, we are strong - and we will remain so."
He added: "They have no respect for life."
Putin's fresh invasion in Kharkiv
UKRAINE'S second largest city of Kharkiv was blitzed from the air on May 10 as advancing enemy troops were pegged back.
They fired missiles, drones and glider bombs towards the border towns of Vovchansk, Lyptsi and beyond.
The relentless daily bombardment from the skies was stepped up as Ukraine's warriors repelled a series of ground offensives.
In a town 15 miles from the frontline, the residents of a quiet residential street were among the latest casualties of Russia's onslaught.
We found Vasyl Lutsenko, 67, at the base of a tree overlooking the charred remains of the home he and wife Olena have shared for the last 24 years.
Their property was hit by an Iranian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drone shortly after 2am and burned to the ground.
It hit their Summer kitchen before the flames spread instantly to the main house and the neighbours next door.
The timber frames were still smouldering as we arrived yesterday amid piles of brickwork and masonry, twisted metal and their charred possessions.
The roof is no more and all that remains of the lives they created here is a wasteland of treasured memories.
Bearded Vasyl manages a smile as he mentions Boris Johnson and says he and Olena, 58, are lucky to be alive. He is already talking about rebuilding.
But it is too much for Olena who suddenly breaks down and shakes her head as a tear rolls down her cheek.
The Lutsenko home is the latest to be struck by the indiscriminate attacks that have increased daily over the last three weeks.
Extraordinary video footage taken by firefighters hours earlier showed their two-bedroom home engulfed by flames.
Vasyl and Olena escaped via their bedroom window after it was blown in by the power of the blast.
Olena was in her slippers but is now wearing a pair of trainers donated by a neighbour.
Vasyl says: "The world needs to understand that we cannot stop Vladimir Putin on our own.
"The whole world needs to end Putin. He won't stop. You will have the war in London and around your home if he is not stopped.
"Today, we have great news. We are alive and I suspect this dumbf*** Putin will be dead soon.
"He's a d***head."
Next door, Oleksii Yakhno, 71, is surveying the devastating damage to the home he and wife Olga, 68, have lived in for the last 51 years.
Oleksii was asleep in a back bedroom and his wife was on a sofa bed in the kitchen when the drone struck.
Olga cried out to her husband to save the family car, a purple 13 series Lada, as the ceilings caved in.
He did as he was told and ran out in his pants, diving into the front seat as the flames tore through the garage.
His grandson, Pavlo, watched from his apartment block nearby and raced to their home.
Tearful Oleksii tells me: "My wife saw the neighbour's summer kitchen hit by the drone.
"It caught fire immediately and my wife told me to go and save our car.
"I went off - even in my underwear - ran into the garage and started the engine.
"Over the last few years I've been saving money so that my daughter's can pay for my funeral when I'm dead, but it's all gone.
"We've been here since 1973. Everything that we have is gone."
His eyes fill with tears as he says: "I don't have any feelings - just that I have lost the roof over my head.
"The home and everything we owned is gone - I just don't know what to do.
"Maybe I would be better off dead. It's very, very bad. What can I do now? I have lived my entire life here."
Olga said: "The windows shattered and there is glass everywhere.
"You see everything with your eyes. The house is completely destroyed. We've got nothing left."
It is Olga's birthday next week and they were preparing to celebrate.
For now, they are simply trying to pick up the pieces of their broken lives.
Local Mayor Ihor Terekhov told The Sun: "Four Shaheds were fired at the city overnight.
"People are left with nothing right now. We will definitely help them and do our best to rebuild their lives.
"The Russian aggressor is carrying out crimes every day against the Ukrainian nation."
The aerial bombardment of Kharkiv has stepped up in recent weeks after enemy troops spilled over the border to open up a new front.
The move stretched Ukraine's defenders as reinforcements were sent to repel Russian forces.
Putin insists his troops are creating a buffer zone but fears of a full-scale assault on the city remain.
The Russian tyrant is suffering brutal battlefield losses as his troops advance on Kharkiv and is said to have lost as many as 1,210 troops in a 24-hour period as waves of soldiers poured across the border.
The city is under constant bombardment from artillery fire, missiles and drone strikes - but Ukrainian military chiefs have said Putin's assault is coming at a terrible price.
It was revealed on Sunday that Putin had lost another 16 tanks and 48 artillery systems in the conflict, as well as troops.
Exclusive footage this week showed the top-secret Ukrainian army HQ where Brits have trained 14,000 troops to take on Russian invaders.
The Sun lifted the lid on the operations of the camp, located just a few miles from the frontline in Kharkiv.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
We went behind the scenes to reveal the "killhouse" exercises putting soldiers "through their paces" in preparation for meatgrinder battles.
The dramatic video showed Kyiv's troops armed and in combat gear, storming makeshift houses and studying drone warfare.
Putin's plan to seize Donbas
VLADIMIR Putin is plotting to seize the Donbas region in just weeks as he distracts Kyiv's forces on the northern front, military experts warn.
The new offensive in Kharkiv could be Moscow's ultimate deception - stretch and distract Ukraine to finally conquer the prized eastern region as early as June.
Professor Michael Clarke, former director of the UK think-tank RUSI, said that in coming weeks the Kremlin's troops will pound the Donbas from the north and south in a pincer movement to take it all.
Speaking to The Sun, he said Russian forces have for over a month been stretching Ukraine all along its 600-mile front "putting pressure everywhere all at once".
He said the Kremlin's ultimate plan is to once and for all conquer the whole Donbas region in Ukraine's east.
Russia's major new offensive in the Kharkiv region is a cruel deception designed to draw Kyiv's troops north while the majority of Moscow's troops actually prepare to swing east and march south, Clarke claimed.
The expert added: "It’s a two-pronged offensive as I see it."
13
13
13
13
13
13
Topics