Half of the huge television broadcasting tower in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was destroyed by a Russian cruise missile. /X (Twitter)
A huge television broadcasting tower in Kharkiv, the second largest city in eastern Ukraine, was destroyed and split in two after it was attacked by a Russian cruise missile.
On the 22nd (local time), the Governor of Kharkiv Oblast Ukraine, Oleg Sinyehubou, announced that an attack had taken place on the TV tower, which is a TV infrastructure, around 4:35 pm local time. This TV tower is a 240m high structure built in the early 1980s when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and was found to have been hit by a missile from about 140m away.
The attack disrupted the city’s digital television signal, with the National Special Communications Agency saying the tower structure was “partially damaged” and that work was underway to restore the broadcast signal. Digital TV transmission in the Kharkiv region has been suspended, but cable TV and wired and wireless communications are said to be operating. The Russian military reportedly used Kh-59 missiles in this attack.
In a video shared on social media, smoke was seen rising into the sky as the top of the TV tower was hit by a missile and fell to the ground. Later pictures showed the collapsed tower lying on the ground, and the building next to the tower was severely damaged by falling debris.
People examine the remains of the top part of a television tower that was partially destroyed by a Russian missile attack on television infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Monday. /EPA Yonhap News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “Russia’s clear intention is to depopulate this city,” adding, “To make terrorism visible to the entire city of Kharkiv and limit connectivity and access to information.” “The destruction of television towers is defined as a war crime under Ukrainian law and international humanitarian law,” said Oksana Romaniuk, director of the Public Information Institute, a Ukrainian think tank. “We demand a thorough investigation and an appropriate response from the international community,” he said.
Kharkiv, with a population of 1.3 million, is an easy target for Russian attacks due to its geopolitical location less than 30 kilometers from the border. Russia attacked the Kharkiv TV tower in March 2022, shortly after it began its full-scale attack. Recently, it has intensified its attacks on Kharkiv, using missiles, glide bombs, and drones to destroy energy infrastructure and kill civilians. At the end of March, Russia destroyed all of Kharkiv’s substations, leaving the city without a reliable power supply.
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