RUSSIAN missile strikes killed at least six postal workers and wounded 16 others yesterday, when they hit a mail depot in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky shared a video on social media of what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and a container with the logo of Ukrainian postal operator Nova Poshta.

“All six dead and 14 injured as a result of the occupiers’ attack were employees of the company who were inside the Nova Poshta terminal,” Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said.

“The victims, aged between 19 and 42, received shrapnel wounds and blast injuries.”

Of the injured being treated in hospital, seven were in a serious condition, Sinegubov said.

“Doctors are fighting to save their lives,” he said.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed the death toll but updated the number of injured to 16.

Sergiy Nozhka, who works for Nova Poshta, described the condition of some his colleagues as “mild to moderate severity”, adding “there are some people in a very serious condition”.

He said a rocket “flew into the neighbouring depot, but at ours too – the windows and shutters flew out. This is not the first time”.

According to the regional prosecutor’s office, Russian forces in the Belgorod region north of Kharkiv fired S-300 missiles, two of which hit the warehouse.

“Debris analysis continues at the site in order to establish the exact number of injured and dead,” office spokesman Dmytro Chubenko told Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster. – AFP, October 22, 2023.