KHARKIV   -    A wave of Russian missile strikes on Thursday pummeled several locations in Kharkiv, including a printing house the regional capital, killing seven people, as the Kremlin’s forces advance. Russian troops have taken advantage of a weakened front line in Ukraine, and for the past two weeks have advanced towards Kharkiv. The region was captured by Russian forces earlier in the war before being liberated.

All seven of the deceased, at least five of whom were women, were civilians working for the Factor-Druk printing company in the region’s capital, the city of Kharkiv, according to the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov. Sixteen people were injured at the at printing house, located south of the city center, and another seven were injured elsewhere. After the attack, images emerged of the factory partly reduced to rubble, with its facade blown off. Factor- Druk publishes around a third of the nation’s books and 10% of its newspapers, the company says on its website. The Ukrainian state railway network was also attacked in the early morning, according to a statement from the company. Six employees were wounded, the company said. A CNN team travelling in the area saw two craters and smoke from impacts near a railway line. 

Civilians have also been trapped by a new swell of violence engulfing the region. On May 15, Russian forces fired on people desperately trying to flee the town of Vovchansk and killed a woman being pushed in a wheelchair by her husband, Ukrainian prosecutors reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the “extremely brutal Russian attack” on Kharkiv and the town of Lyubotyn, drawing attention to the fragility of Kyiv’s air defenses in the face of Moscow’s renewed assault.