Seven people are killed by Russian shelling in downtown Kharkiv, according to local authorities.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kharkiv was the site of heavy fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian forces. On 27 February, the governor of Kharkiv Oblast Oleh Synyehubov claimed that Russian troops were repelled from Kharkiv.
According to a 28 February 2022, report from Agroportal24h, the Kharkiv Tractor Plant (KhTZ), in the south east of the city, was destroyed and “engulfed in fire” by “massive shelling” from Russian forces. There is video purporting to record explosions and fire at the plant on 25 and 27 February 2022.
On 4 March 2022, Human Rights Watch reported that on the fourth day of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, 28 February 2022, Federation forces used cluster munitions in the KhTZ district, the Moskovskyi district and Shevchenkivskyi district of the city. The rights group—which noted the “inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions and their foreseeable effects on civilians”—based its assessment on interviews and an analysis of 40 videos and photographs.
The battle for the city has been described as one of the deadliest battles in the invasion, with a Ukrainian presidential advisor describing it as the “Stalingrad of the 21st century.”
