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Kharkiv postal strike capped a week of missile attacks
Summary
A Russian missile strike on a postal office in Kharkiv on 21 October 2023 followed days of strikes and the first battlefield use of ATACMS missiles by Ukraine.
What did a week of escalating missile exchanges look like on the ground in Ukraine? On 21 October 2023, a Russian missile struck a postal office in Kharkiv, killing six workers and injuring 16 others.
A week of strikes
The Kharkiv attack came three days after Russian missile strikes across Ukraine on 18 October 2023 killed at least 10 people, according to Ukrainian officials. Among the dead were five civilians in a strike on an apartment building in Zaporizhzhia.
ATACMS enter the fight
On 17 October 2023, Ukraine launched ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles at Russian bases in Berdiansk and Luhansk. Ukrainian forces said the missiles destroyed nine helicopters and a supply depot and killed several Russian military personnel. It was the first time Ukrainian forces had used the missiles in combat.
On 18 October 2023, Russia responded to the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with the long-range missiles by calling it a grave mistake that would carry serious consequences.
The wider battlefield
These events unfolded during the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, which began in early June 2023. Ukraine launched it with the goal of breaching the front lines held by Russian forces occupying its territory, with efforts in many directions, primarily in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Later, the counteroffensive ended with Ukraine having recaptured 14 villages in those two oblasts, with a total pre-war population of around 5,000.
The strike on the Kharkiv postal office, a civilian facility, added six deaths to the toll of a week in which Russian missiles hit residential and civilian sites while Ukraine used newly supplied long-range weapons against Russian bases.
