Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv under fire: 17 August 2022

What did the Russian missile campaign look like on 17 August 2022, and what lay behind it? The day brought strikes on cities in both the north-east and the south of Ukraine.

In Kharkiv, a Russian missile hit a dormitory, killing seven civilians and injuring 16 others, according to the city's mayor and top military administrator. Kharkiv lies about 30 kilometres south of the Russia–Ukraine border and is Ukraine's second-largest city. It had been considered a major target early in the invasion, and the fighting around it between February and May 2022 became known as the Battle of Kharkiv.

Strikes in the south

On the same day Russia launched missile strikes on Odesa and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. They were carried out in response to sabotage bombings of military facilities in Crimea.

The Crimean episode had unfolded the previous day. On 16 August 2022 an explosion at an ammunition depot in northern Crimea forced civilians to be evacuated. Observers suggested the depot may have been hit by Ukrainian forces. The strikes on Odesa and Mykolaiv were thus presented as a reply to events on the peninsula, while the attack on Kharkiv hit a residential building for students far from any front in the south.

Training support abroad

The diplomatic and military backdrop included another development. On 15 August 2022 the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, announced that 120 New Zealand troops would be deployed to the United Kingdom to train Ukrainian forces. It was one more sign of foreign involvement in preparing Ukraine's army as the war continued.

What the day showed

Taken together, the reports from 15 to 17 August 2022 show a conflict in which the fighting was not confined to one front. Russian missiles reached a northern city and two southern ones within a single day, with civilians killed in Kharkiv. Meanwhile, the blast in Crimea and the announced training deployment pointed to activity beyond the immediate lines of battle.