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Russia continues to bombard Kharkiv despite little recent progress in Moscow’s eastern campaign.

Even as Russian forces have stalled in their advance in eastern Ukraine, they continued their unrelenting bombardment of the country’s second largest city, Kharkiv, on Thursday as the Ukrainians in turn pursued a limited counteroffensive in the direction of the eastern city.

For the second day in row, Russian forces struck bus stops in Kharkiv, killing at least two people and wounding 19 more, including a child, according to Ukrainian officials.

Serhii Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the regional police force, accused Russia of firing missiles designed to target aircraft to sow terror among civilians. Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, urged residents to be cautious, saying that Russian forces continued to fire “chaotically and brutally” at the city.

Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said it was the second day in a row that Russian forces had hit public transportation stops. They also hit a medical facility, he said.

On Wednesday, he said, three civilians were killed in shelling, including a 13-year-old boy. His 15-year-old sister is in serious condition, and an older woman was also injured, Mr. Terekhov said.

A man holding the hand of his 13-year-old son who was killed in a strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.Credit…Reuters

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said the Russians had also struck a mosque in Kharkiv.

Russian forces have continued to try to advance in eastern Ukraine but have failed in recent weeks to make any significant territorial gains.

“The renewal of active ground offensives following the brief operational pause has not yet translated into meaningful Russian forward progress, although it is possible that either steady Russian pressure or the completion of Russian efforts to rebuild combat power could generate limited gains in the coming days or weeks,” according to the most recent analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

The Ukrainian military said it had repelled a limited Russian ground assault about six miles outside the city near the village of Pytomnyk.

Although the Ukrainians thwarted Moscow’s attempt early in the war to capture Kharkiv, a city just 25 miles from the Russian border, and pushed Russian forces out of the northern suburbs and back into Russia, the city has remained a constant target.

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