Kharkiv region

Russian forces are accused of using civilians as human shields during their retreat near Kupiansk in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, in what is being described as another potential war crime. The report has been shared widely, with calls for the International Criminal Court and international media in Brussels to pay attention to the alleged violation.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian forces attacked Ukrainian regions throughout the night and into the morning. In Kharkiv, a strike partially destroyed the second and fourth floors of a high-rise apartment building. Kyiv also sustained damage from drone attacks, with residential areas hit. The strikes are the latest in Russia's ongoing aerial campaign against Ukrainian cities.

Russian strikes on energy infrastructure have left households without electricity across eight Ukrainian regions as of Friday morning, including Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv oblasts. Ukrainian authorities report the outages stem directly from attacks on the power grid, the latest in a campaign targeting energy facilities that has repeatedly disrupted heating and electricity supply during the war.

Russian forces shelled the central market in Izium, Kharkiv region, using a multiple rocket launcher system. The attack sparked a fire that destroyed around 20 trade pavilions at the market. The strike on a civilian shopping area has drawn renewed attention to ongoing Russian attacks on populated areas of the Kharkiv region.