Russian daytime missile attack on Kharkiv kills at least seven people

The death toll in a daytime Russian missile attack on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Thursday rose to at least seven, with 16 others injured, Kharkiv military governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.

Syniehubov said on his Telegram channel that there had been at least 15 strikes by Russian missiles. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that the strikes had hit transport infrastructure and a private company.

A renewed attack later hit Kharkiv and Derhachi, a town to the north-west, causing a further 13 injuries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the "extremely brutal attack," which took place during peak traffic and not at night, as is usual.

Zelensky said the Russians were exploiting the lack of adequate air defences in a post on social media platform X. Zelensky also said that reliable weapons were needed to strike Russian positions just across Ukraine's border.

Zelensky called for permission to use weapons supplied by the United States and others to hit Russian troops in those areas. For example, Russian forces have recently made incursions across the border into the Kharkiv region.

Ukraine's allies have provided high-tech weapons on condition that they not be used to strike Russian territory.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Western arms deliveries would not prevent Russia from pursuing its war aims.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city by population before the war, has come under repeated aerial attack from drones, missiles and glide bombs.

Some two weeks ago, Russian forces advanced across the border in the region and are now less than 20 kilometres from the city's outskirts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that the aim is not to occupy Kharkiv, but rather to create a buffer zone to prevent Ukrainian forces from mounting attacks on Belgorod and other Russian cities close to the border.

Military observers say, however, that the Russian forces are aiming to penetrate in depth, rather than along the wide front that would be needed for a buffer zone.

An attempt to seize Kharkiv was repelled in the early days of the invasion more than two years ago, with Russian forces suffering heavy losses.

Late on Thursday, at least two Russian civilians were killed by a missile attack on the Crimean capital, the Moscow-appointed governor wrote on Telegram.

"As a result of a missile attack by the enemy on the peninsula in the Simferopol region, two bystanders were killed," Crimean governor Sergey Aksyonov wrote.

Simferopol is more than 200 kilometres away from the front line.

An empty commercial property near the city of Alushta was also struck, he said.

There was initially no official reaction from Kiev.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian drone attacks forced the temporary closure of airports in the cities of Kazan and Nizhnekamsk in Russia's Tatarstan republic.

Media reports said that air defences had downed a light aircraft of type Aeroprakt A-22 that had been converted into an autonomous aircraft, while the Defence Ministry in Moscow referred only to a drone that had been shot down.

Tatarstan has previously come under Ukrainian drone attack, causing the airport in Kazan, the republic's capital, to close for a spell. Kazan lies around 1,000 kilometres from Ukrainian-controlled territory.

The city is due to host the BRICS summit between October 22 and 24. Russia is host this year to the conference of major economies outside the Western orbit, including China, India and Brazil. The organization is seen as a geopolitical rival to the G7.