---
title: "Russia strikes Kharkiv with ballistic missile, injures 11, Ukraine says"
description: "KHARKIV, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Russia hit a residential area in Kharkiv with a ballistic missile, injuring at least 11 people, Ukrainian authorities said late on Sunday, as the U.S. president presses Kyiv to accept a quick deal to end the war that Moscow had started."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Newsdeck"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-08-18-russia-strikes-kharkiv-with-ballistic-missile-injures-11-ukraine-says/"
published: "2025-08-18T04:48:56"
updated: "2025-08-18T04:48:57"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 269
---

# Russia strikes Kharkiv with ballistic missile, injures 11, Ukraine says

> KHARKIV, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Russia hit a residential area in Kharkiv with a ballistic missile, injuring at least 11 people, Ukrainian authorities said late on Sunday, as the U.S. president presses Kyiv to accept a quick deal to end the war that Moscow had started.

By Reuters · Published 18 August 2025, 06:48 SAST · Updated 18 August 2025, 06:48 SAST

## Key points
- In a tragic reminder that war is no picnic, Kharkiv's latest drone strike left a 13-year-old girl among the injured, while nearby Sumy also bore the brunt of Russia's nocturnal bombing spree, as authorities lament the continued targeting of civilian life—proving once again that the only thing flying higher than missiles in Ukraine is the rhetoric about peace talks.
- A 13-year-old girl was among those injured in Kharkiv following a Russian drone and missile attack, according to regional governor Oleh Synehubov.
- The blast caused significant damage, shattering windows and prompting evacuations in nearby residential buildings.
- In the Sumy region, a guided aerial bomb strike injured a 57-year-old woman and damaged multiple homes and an educational facility.
- President Trump urged Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, emphasizing the latter's significant power in the ongoing conflict.

## Content

By Vitalii Hnidyi

Among the injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, was a 13-year-old girl, Oleh Synehubov, governor of the broader Kharkiv region said on the Telegram messaging app.

Kharkiv, which lies in northeastern Ukraine near the border with Russia, has been the target of regular Russian drone and missile attacks since the start of the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"The blast wave shattered windows in nearby apartment buildings," Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on Telegram. It added that some residents had to be evacuated.

Reuters' witnesses saw medics attending to residents on a street and rescuers inspecting damage in residential buildings.

A 57-year-old woman was injured in Russia's guided aerial bomb strike on the northeastern region of Sumy that also damaged at least a dozen residential houses and an educational institution building, regional authorities said.

"The enemy continues to deliberately target civilian infrastructure in the Sumy region — treacherously, at night," Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional administration in Sumy, said on Telegram.

Reuters could not independently verify what weapons Russia used. There was no immediate comment from Moscow. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes, but thousands of people have died, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

President Donald Trump, who hosted President [Vladimir Putin](https://www.reuters.com/world/russia/vladimir-putin/) in Alaska on Friday for bilateral talks aimed at ending the war, has urged Kyiv to [make a deal](https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N3U801A&linkedFromStory=true) with Moscow, stating, "Russia is a very big power, and they're not."

(Additional reporting by Bogdan Kobuchey in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; editing by Diane Craft)