Heavy shelling by Russian troops in Ukraine's 2nd-largest city Kharkiv, residential areas attacked

Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said the administration building in the centre of Kharkiv came under heavy Russian shelling Tuesday along with residential buildings. 

Kyiv: The Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday claimed that the centre of the country's second-largest city Kharkiv has been badly hit by renewed Russian shelling. Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said the administration building in the centre of Kharkiv came under heavy Russian shelling along with other residential buildings. 

Sinehubov didn't give any specific numbers of casualties from the latest shelling. Previously, Sinehubov had said at least 11 people were killed and scores of others were wounded in the shelling in Kharkiv on Monday.

He said Ukrainian troops are fending off Russian attempts to advance on the city of 1.4 million people. Videos posted on Ukrainian social networks and media showed a massive explosion next to the towering Soviet-era administrative building on Kharkiv's central square hitting several cars parked in front of it, shattering windows but leaving the building largely intact. 

Sinehubov said that Russia launched GRAD and cruise missiles on Kharkiv but that the city defence was holding. "Such attacks are the genocide of the Ukrainian people, a war crime against the civilian population!" he said.

Wearing a flak jacket and a helmet, Synegubov said in a video posted on social media “that it was too early to know the number of casualties.”