Dozens of crying children were carried away from the burning building in Kharkiv after a flurry of Russian drone strikes destroyed a nursery in the northeastern Ukrainian city
Chilling footage has captured the aftermath as Vladimir Putin launched devastating drone strikes on a Ukrainian nursery.
Terrified children were seen screaming and crying as they were evacuated from the inferno left behind by a barrage of strikes at a pre-school in Kharkiv. One person was killed and another seven injured.
Footage shows fire officials racing through the streets cradling the traumatised little ones in their arms. Thankfully, fire officials managed to evacuate all of the 48 children after the strikes on Wednesday morning. An adult male was found dead, with another seven people injured during the Russian onslaught.
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Harrowing images showed the roof of the nursery completely caved in, with whiteboards torn through the wall, a floor covered with shattered glass, and children’s desks among piles of singed debris. From outside, thick plumes of acrid smoke can be seen billowing from the holes left behind.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has branded the onslaught a “spit in the face” towards peace-seekers, adding that “bandits and terrorists” under Putin’s command were responsible. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a statement: “There was a direct hit on a private kindergarten in the Kholodnoyarkiy district of Kharkiv. A fire started.”
Taking to social media, Zelensky confirmed all the kids had been moved to shelters. Though they were safe, they are reporting symptoms of “acute stress”.
Zelensky said: “There is and cannot be any justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten. Russia is becoming more impudent. These strikes are Russia’s spit in the face of anyone who insists on a peaceful solution.”
It came hours before Trump cleared the way for Ukraine to use certain long-range missiles supplied by Western allies after a planned meeting with Vladimir Putin collapsed. A key restriction on their use has been lifted, allowing Kyiv to strike deep inside Russia and pile pressure on the Kremlin, US officials said on Wednesday.
Ukraine fired British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles on Tuesday at a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on social media, calling it a “successful hit”. Ukrainian forces said the Russian plant “produces gunpowder, explosives and rocket fuel components used in ammunition and missiles employed by the enemy to shell the territory of Ukraine”.
The strike came after an unannounced US move shifted approval for such attacks from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to America’s top general in Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich, who also serves as NATO commander, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The attack using UK-made missiles happened on the same day that PM Keir Starmer and other European leaders pledged to “ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defence industry” until Putin “is ready to make peace”.