Russian glide bombs kill seven in Kharkiv as Zelenskiy fires air force commander

On the 920th day of the war, Russian warplanes launched five guided glide bombs at Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. The strike hit a residential building and a playground. When rescue workers finished pulling bodies from the rubble, seven people were dead, among them a fourteen-year-old girl. At least seventy-seven others were wounded. About twenty of the injured were in critical condition, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor. The bombs had been launched from aircraft based in Russia's Belgorod region, Ukrainian authorities said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy used the attack to renew a familiar demand: permission from Western allies to strike Russian military airfields with long-range weapons. "A strike on the airfields would not have happened if our defence forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based," he said. He framed the restriction as irrational, a constraint on Ukraine's ability to defend itself. The argument is straightforward—hit the planes before they fly.

Russia responded with its own account of casualties. Ukrainian forces, Moscow claimed, had fired cluster munitions at Belgorod and surrounding areas, killing at least five people and wounding thirty-seven civilians, including at least six children. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor, posted video of a burning house and described one woman and four men dying before ambulances could reach them. The state news agency Tass published images of a road littered with debris and twisted metal. Ukraine has not confirmed the attack and maintains it does not target civilians inside Russia.

On the same day, Zelenskiy dismissed Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of Ukraine's air force. The decision came one day after news broke that a recently delivered F-16 fighter jet had crashed during the week, killing the pilot. Zelenskiy announced the change in an evening video address but offered no explicit reason for removing Oleshchuk, saying only that he was "eternally grateful" to the country's military pilots and that he needed to "protect" their lives.

The crash itself remains contested. Mariana Bezugla, a member of parliament's defence committee, had claimed the plane was shot down by friendly fire. But a U.S. official, speaking to Reuters, said the aircraft did not appear to have been struck by Russian fire. Mechanical failure or pilot error may have caused the crash, the official suggested. No independent investigation has been made public.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, both sides reported territorial movement. Russia's defence ministry said its forces had captured three villages in the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions. Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, countered that Ukrainian forces had advanced roughly one mile into Russia's Kursk region in the previous twenty-four hours, taking control of two additional square miles of Russian territory. The grinding contest for ground continues without clear momentum.

In Kursk, Russian officials announced the formation of armed volunteer detachments tasked with security and life support in areas where civilians had been relocated. Governor Alexy Smirnov said the new units would help "ensure security" and support "the remaining people in this difficult time." The statement reflects the scale of displacement the Russian region has experienced since Ukrainian forces crossed the border weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, Ukraine pressed a diplomatic angle. Officials called on Mongolia to arrest Vladimir Putin during his scheduled visit on Tuesday. Mongolia is a member of the International Criminal Court, which has issued a warrant for Putin's arrest over the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. Whether Mongolia would act on such a request remained unclear.