Seven dead in Russian strikes on Kharkiv as Kyiv pleads for weapons

By Max Hunder and Anastasiia Malenko

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russia pounded Kharkiv with missiles on Thursday, killing seven people inside a printing house, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy chided Ukraine's western allies for not providing enough military support to rebuff Russian attacks.

Moscow's forces are increasingly hammering the northeastern regional capital, a city of 1.2 million, as they attempt to press a ground assault on the border region and stretch Ukrainian defences on the eastern front.

Authorities said Russia fired about 15 missiles on the cities of Kharkiv and Liubotyn on Thursday, targeting mostly transport infrastructure and the printing house in Kharkiv, where officials said around 50 people were inside at the time of the strike.

Smoke poured out of the structure, whose roof was torn open, as exhausted rescue workers hauled bodies in plastic bags out of the building. Charred pages from books were scattered across the ground.

Speaking at the scene of the strike, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov described it as an "absolutely civilian" object.

"There are no military facilities either here or nearby," he told reporters.

Another 24 people were wounded in the attacks, the regional prosecutor's office said. It added that the missiles were launched from Russia's Belgorod region, which Russian forces used to launch their May 10 incursion.

Separately, Ukraine's state railway company said six workers were wounded after several of its facilities in Kharkiv and the region had come under attack.

'NOT OUR WEAKNESS'

In a social media post, Zelenskiy chided Ukraine's international partners for not providing enough air-defence systems or allowing Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to strike missile-launchers inside Russia.

"This weakness is not our weakness, but that of the world's, which for the third year already has not dared to deal with the terrorists exactly as they deserve," he said.

Ukrainian forces, outmanned and outgunned, are struggling to fend off fierce Russian assaults along multiple parts of the 1,000-kilometre (620 mile) front line as they await more shipments from a long-delayed U.S. aid package.

In an interview with Reuters this week, Zelenskiy called on Kyiv's allies to step up their involvement in the war, including by shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed Zelenskiy's plea for more air-defence systems on Thursday, saying Ukraine urgently needed more U.S.-made Patriot batteries.

"Unfortunately, mere words of solidarity do not intercept Russian missiles," he wrote on X.

(Additional geporting by Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, Gareth Jones, William Maclean)