On Sunday, Russia bombed several nearby towns and a popular lakeside resort near the country's second-largest city, leaving at least 11 people dead and numerous others injured.
The missile attacks were the most recent in a string of frequent Russian assaults in the past few weeks on the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, where Russian forces have begun an offensive.
Blood was streaming down the face of Valentyna, 69, at the lakefront resort area where her house had been wrecked and a busy restaurant had been completely destroyed. She pointed to a spot close to the coast where there was now a crater, debris, and bodies, saying her husband had been killed near the lake.
She cried and said it hurts to lose her husband, her house, and everything in the world. The Russians are like beasts.
According to the prosecution, there were six fatalities, one reported missing, and 27 injuries. Twenty minutes or so after the first attack, according to rescuers, there was a second strike that double-tapped the emergency personnel on the spot.
According to Yaroslav Trofimko, an inspector from the police who arrived during the first strike and was subsequently caught up in the second, there were never any soldiers present. It was a Sunday, and people were meant to be relaxing, having fun, and taking part in usual activities. Children were also meant to be there, as were pregnant women.
Afterwards, in two villages across the Kupiansk area, five more people had been killed and nine injured. Two villages in the district were shelled by Russian soldiers using a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher, according to local governor Oleh Syniehubov.
In Vovchansk, a town in the Kharkiv region that is five kilometers (three miles) inside the border and in the center of a Russian incursion that began a little over a week ago, prosecutors reported that one person was killed in Russian shelling., and there were three injuries.
Last week, Russian forces advanced into the Kharkiv region's northern regions, and according to the Russian military, they had taken control of at least 12 communities. 13 people were hurt on Sunday in the Belgorod area of Russia by firing from Ukraine across the border.
In order to defend Kharkiv and other cities, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy once again called on Western partners to support Kyiv with more air defense systems.
Zelenskiy stated on Telegram that the absence of political will among leaders must be addressed if the world is to put an end to Russian terror.
He added that two Patriots for Kharkiv — Patriot missile defense systems — will fundamentally change the situation, and sufficient backing for soldiers fighting on the front lines and air defense systems for other cities would guarantee Russia's defeat.