A video reportedly shot by a Kharkiv resident appears to reveal the scale of the carnage wreaked by Russian bombers, who targeted the Ukrainian city on Friday night.
The clip, shared by prominent eastern European media outlet Nexta, shows the property consumed by an inferno.
The outlet says that the fire was caused by “Russian occupiers”, and although Express.co.uk has not been able to independently verify this, Russian drone attacks have been confirmed to have taken place in the Nemyshlianskyi district of Kharkiv the day before the video was posted.
Fire consumed areas of the city, reportedly after drones hit a petrol station. Sky News has reported that 15 homes as well as the petrol station were destroyed by the flames. It is unclear whether the home in the Nexta video is one of the 15 homes ravaged by the fire.
Nexta captioned the 16-second clip, which has been viewed nearly 50,000 times: “A resident of Kharkiv showed how his house was on fire after a night attack by Russian occupiers. The man was able to run out of the house at the last moment.”
Following the devastating blaze, the head of the prosecutor’s office, Oleksandr Filchakov, said: “There was a great deal of fuel and that’s why there are these dreadful consequences from the fire”.
According to Ukrainian officials, seven people including three children were killed in the drone attack.
This brutal attack comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed western powers for the conflict in Ukraine, citing NATO’s expansionary tendency and the possibility of drawing Ukraine towards the defensive military alliance.
In response, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak branded the idea “ridiculous”.
Speaking to broadcasters in the south west, Mr Sunak said: “Russia conducted an illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. I’m proud that the UK has stood strongly with Ukraine from the beginning.
