KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired two missiles at Kharkiv during the night, hitting apartment buildings and a medical center and injuring 17 people in the city in northeastern Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in Moscow's latest strikes on civilian areas in the almost two-year war.
The S-300 missiles landed after dark Tuesday, Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
Normally surface-to-air missiles, the S-300s have been adapted by Russia to hit targets on the ground and are cheaper to make than ballistic or cruise missiles. However, they are inaccurate and have a shorter range, analysts say.
Both sides are looking to replenish their weapons stockpiles as fighting along the 1,500-kilometer front line is largely bogged down during winter and the war's focus turns to long-range missile, drone and artillery strikes.
Russia's recently intensified aerial attacks sharply increased civilian casualties in December, with more than 100 Ukrainians killed and nearly 500 injured, according to the United Nations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been making a diplomatic push for Kyiv's Western allies to keep supplying weaponry. He recently visited the three Baltic countries and on Tuesday attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Ukraine has accomplished a lot more than might be obvious on the battlefield at the moment, Blinken said Wednesday in Davos. Kyiv's forces last year clawed back about half of the territory lost to Russia after the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and have forced the Russian navy to pull back from the Ukrainian coast in the Black Sea, he noted.
"The strategic picture looks ... very different than maybe the day-in and day- out picture" on the battlefield, he said. / AP