Russia attacks Kharkov ‘police station’ as US strengthens Ukrainian army | War news between Russia and Ukraine

At least one person killed in Kharkiv as the Pentagon announced $425 million in additional military aid to Ukraine.

A Russian rocket attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkov, hit a site used by police officers, killing at least one senior officer and wounding 30 other people, police said.

Four civilians were among those injured in the late afternoon attack on Friday, according to a statement from the national police on messaging app Telegram. It said Russian forces had deployed S-300 missiles.

“Today the Russian enemy attacked a police station in the center of Kharkov with two rockets, killing a police officer,” Ivan Vygivsky, the head of the Ukrainian National Police, wrote on Facebook, naming the deceased police colonel Andriy Matviyenko .

He posted photos showing a huge crater next to a pile of rubble left from the building. In another photo, a police officer had his head bandaged and blood on his face.

Photos posted on Telegram by Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, showed rescue teams searching through piles of rubble.

Syniehubov said some of the injured officers were in serious condition. He said an attack on the city earlier in the day had damaged an apartment building and several private houses.

Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million people, is about 30 km from the border and remains a frequent target of Russian airstrikes. On Wednesday, a Russian-led bomb struck a multi-storey home, killing three people.

The city remained in Ukrainian hands during the first failed advance of Russian forces into the capital Kiev, following their invasion in February 2022. But Moscow has increasingly used powerful glide bombs to bomb Ukrainian positions along the 1,000km line of contact and towns tens of kilometers away hit the front line.

$425 million in US military aid

Friday’s strike came on the same day the United States announced an additional $425 million in military aid to Ukraine, as Kiev prepares to confront Russian forces joined by North Korean troops.

Kiev is facing new uncertainty amid reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia are approaching the Ukrainian border. About 8,000 people are preparing to join Russia’s fight against Ukrainian forces in the coming days, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

During a visit to Kiev last week, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said more military aid would be coming to Ukraine soon.

This new aid package includes weapons that will be drawn from existing U.S. stockpiles, including air defense interceptors for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 155mm artillery, and armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.

“The United States will continue to work … to meet urgently needed battlefield requirements in Ukraine and defend against Russian aggression,” the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement.

The aid package announced by the Pentagon on Friday brings the total amount of military aid the US has provided to Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022 to $60.4 billion.