Kharkiv's civilians under fire as Ukraine faces 'catastrophic' air defence shortage

Loss of confidence in Saint Mary's leadership | SaltWireKHARKIV, Ukraine - Kateryna Velnychuk was having an afternoon nap when an explosion shattered the windows of her ground-floor flat, spraying shrapnel that tore holes through her walls and cupboards.

But the drying up of Western military support in recent months – as a vital U.S. military aid package has been stuck in Congress amid Republican resistance – has left Kharkiv even more dangerously unprotected. He accused Russia of seeking to reduce the city - which was home to 2 million people before the war - to rubble, clearing the way for its troops to advance. He said Ukraine's military would repel any such offensive.

At least 10 missiles rained down on Kharkiv on Thursday, triggering emergency blackouts for 200,000 people in the surrounding region, as Russia launched its third major air attack on energy infrastructure across Ukraine in recent weeks. While the guided bombs have are less accurate and destructive than other missiles used by Russia, such as S-300s and Iskanders, they are much cheaper for Russia to produce, he said.

"I always imagined I would grow up and have some kind of life, move from the village to the city, study. Now I live and ... I don't even know if I'll wake up tomorrow morning," said Velynchuk, a hairdresser. "There are two issues now: the ammunition issue and the manpower issue. If they address them, I think Ukraine can hold back Russian advances," said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Philadelphia.

Russia, which captured the eastern town of Avdiivka in February and controls 18% of Ukrainian territory, has inched forward in the Donetsk region, keeping up pressure on the fronts west of Avdiivka and the city of Bakhmut. Oleksandr Kovalenko, an independent military analyst based in Odesa, said the strikes on Kharkiv looked aimed at setting in motion such a plan by trying to scare people to leave the city, laying the ground for a possible ground operation at a later date.

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