A Russian artillery strike in eastern Kharkiv killed at least three people on Tuesday, the latest in a series of attacks that have killed multiple civilians in what was once Ukraine’s second-largest city.

A series of blasts and a plume of rising smoke signaled that Kharkiv’s Saltivka neighbourhood had been shelled once more. Saltivka has been one of the hardest-hit residential areas in the city since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

A storage facility in the neighbourhood was in flames, and Ukrainian firefighters were working to contain the fire.

Rogachov Vladimir Petrovich, a local resident, wearing a dark plaid shirt, said he was in his apartment at the time of the shelling. He clenched his hands and paced in front of the burning building as white smoke rose into the air.

Around the corner, on a road that intersects apartment buildings, a lone older man wearing a black leather jacket and blue pants lay lifeless, facedown on the road. Local residents walked past, showing little emotion.

Just across the road, a woman was dead next to a park bench, face down, her arms reaching in front of her. The apartment building behind her was damaged, its windows shattered. An ambulance eventually arrived and carried her body away.

One resident was seen leaving this building with a rolling bag of belongings.

(New York Times News Service)