(Previous Incident Code: RUK0091)

On Tuesday March 22nd 2022, one civilian was reportedly killed and up to nine others injured by an alleged Russian missile strike in the city of Lozova, in the region of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

Suspilne Kharkiv telegram channel monitored the accounts of injuries to civilians from two, to four, to finally eight. Most sources, such as Truexa news telegram channel, and Espreso.tv reported eight wounded civilians, while AOAV, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, and Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union accounted for nine. Suspilne Kharkiv telegram channel, AOAV, and Ukrinform account also for one civilian fatality in the attack. Atn.ua confirmed that all the victims are civilians and Suspilne Kharkiv telegram channel reported that there were no children among them.

As a result of the four missiles accounted by Truexa news ua telegram channel and Slovoidilo, more than 20 residential buildings were hit and destroyed at around 15:30, including schools and kindergartens according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group report, in addition to several boiler rooms causing boiler plants in the city to be switched off according to the Kharkiv Times. The Mayor of Lozova, Serhii Zelenskyi, published a video on Facebook confirming the attack and the head of the Kharkiv State Administration Oleg Sinegubov announced that the equipment of the boiler plants was not damaged, the workers were safe and the city was working to restore heat and gas supplies, as reported by Ukrinform, Espreso.tv, and Kharkiv Times.

The suspected attacker is alleged to be Russia, as reported by most of the sources including Kharkiv Times, Ukrinform, and Espreso.tv, although responsibility has been contested by Perviy Kharkovsky telegram channel, a Ukrainian Telegram channel with a clear pro-Russian stance, which challenging Sinegubov’s declarations that Russia was responsible for the shelling.

This incident has ACLED’s reference code: UKR53879