KHARKIV, Ukraine — Thirty-three civilians — including a 10-year-old and two teenagers — were wounded in strikes Thursday in Kharkiv, where Russian forces are testing out a new type of “glide bomb” on innocent people.
The Post was on scene as war crimes investigators, firefighters, humanitarian and emergency services arrived just minutes after the back-to-back strikes, which hit a residential apartment building and a textiles factory around 11:15 a.m. local time.
“The Russians are striking everywhere. Homes, school and children. They won’t stop,” a building resident named Tatiana said, tears welling in her eyes. “This is World War III happening right here.”
“I was just coming from my kitchen when I heard the bomb,” another building resident, Svetlana Shevcheko, said. “I never thought about leaving Kharkiv before, but I am thinking now.”
The northeastern Ukrainian city is just 15 miles from the Russian border, so bombs and missiles can strike into the city before residents are alerted to an incoming air raid.
The strike used a new kind of glide bomb, which is a repurposed Soviet-era weapon outfitted with aerodynamic wings for more targeted precision and range.
The new bombs used on Kharkiv have a range of somewhere between 90 and 100 km — an increase of about 10 to 20 km — allowing Russia to strike that much further into the city.
“They are testing this out on civilians,” chief war crimes prosecutor for the Kharkiv district Spartak Borisenko told The Post.
While Ukraine is building interceptor drones and other technologies to knock Russian Shaheds out of the sky, the only thing capable of protecting Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities from ballistic missiles and glide bombs are Patriot air-defense systems, which the US produces, Borisenko added.
President Trump announced this month that the US will ship Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine and insisted that the European Union would pick up the tab and reimburse the US for the associated costs.
Another resident, Roman, and his 11-year-old daughter Masha, said the Kharkiv apartment is the third place they have moved since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion 3.5 years ago.
The family’s first home came under occupation by the Russians and a Shahed drone targeted their second.
As they left their damaged apartment with its windows blown out in the blast Thursday, they discovered their Jeep had been totally destroyed after a near-direct strike sent the vehicle flying 50 feet away from where it was parked.
“The car we can replace. It’s just money,” the father said. “At least we are safe.”
While he said he would send Masha to school in Germany this fall to escape violent Kharkiv, he is not allowed to leave the country during wartime under martial law, which bans all Ukrainian men from going abroad in case they must be drafted for military service.
His daughter will stay with family in Germany, he said, where she can continue to pursue her passion of dancing.
“It was scary a little bit. I was crying,” Masha said of the attack. “We were hiding behind two walls.”
“Now it’s sad a little bit, but it’s OK. We got my cat out.”
Kharkiv Oblast Gov. Oleh Synyehubov appeared at the site of the strike shortly after emergency vehicles arrived.
He usually tries to respond to each major blast in the city personally — an act that has become all too routine in 3.5 years of war.
“What can I say? This is life now,” the governor said, surveying the landscape littered with glass and shrapnel as hundreds of residents huddled outside.
“There is no getting used to it.”
