(Previous Incident Code: RUK0084)

On the morning of Friday March 18th 2022, a missile strike by alleged Russian shelling hit an educational building and two neighboring residential buildings, killing one civilian and injuring at least 11, in the town of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

Sources unanimously account for one civilian being killed, with ACLED Dataset reporting that it was a State Emergency employee whose death resulted from “repeated shelling during a rescue mission.” According to DSNS Telegram channel and Sunlitkh, a total of 55 people and 13 units were deployed with the State Emergency Service. Majority of the sources, including a report from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and Radio Svoboda, account for 11 civilians reported injured, with ACLED Dataset identifying one of them as a firefighter. Moreover, multiple sources such as Pravda news and the Kharkivlife telegram channel, report one person being under the rubble, later reported by @zynicism twitter account as rescued and not severely injured, technically raising the civilian injured count to 12.

Around 8.40 am a series of missile strikes hit Barabashovo market, as reported by the ACLED Dataset report, and according to the majority of sources, including Kharkiv Today, the six-story building of the Kharkiv Regional Institute of Public Administration of the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine was damaged. Moreover, most sources report damages to two neighboring residential buildings, where fires were extinguished according to, among other sources, Novynarnia news. According to LB.ua, information about the attack were also confirmed by the deputy head of Kharkiv OVA Roman Semenukha, and the head of the Main Department of the National Police of the Kharkiv region, Volodymyr Tymoshko, who published pictures of the damaged buildings and stated that the area was indeed residential and that a piece of the control unit of the missile had been recovered.

The vast majority of the sources identify the suspected attackers with the occupying Russian forces, including Radio Svoboda, Obozrevatel news, and the aforementioned local telegram channels such as Kharkivlife.

This assessment has reference to ACLED Code UKR53483.