Five people killed in Russian strike on Kyiv TV tower

An apparent Russian airstrike aimed at Kyiv's main television tower killed five people today, officials said, knocking out some broadcasts but leaving the structure intact.

After a blast sounded around the city and smoke was seen rising in the Babi Yar district, the emergency services said five people were also injured in the attack.

Ukrainian officials released footage of bodies and cars damaged by the strike, which came during a surge of Russian attacks on Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv.

"To the world: what is the point of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babi Yar," Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky asked in a tweet.

"Once again, these barbarians are murdering the victims of Holocaust!"

The tower is based near the Babi Yar ravine where more than 30,000 were slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II.

The tragedy is commemorated by a memorial statue and is a site of pilgrimage for many Jews.

Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of threatening the memorial.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack damaged the tower's transformer substation, which provides it with electricity, as well as some of its hardware.

The interior ministry said that back-up systems would be put into operation to restore programming.

Most Ukrainian channels appeared to be functioning normally about an hour after the strike.

Earlier, the Russian defence ministry spokesman had said that Moscow's forces would hit technological infrastructure in Kyiv "to suppress information attacks on Russia".

But the targets he cited - the SBU security service and the army psychological operations unit - did not include the civilian-run television tower in the capital.

Israel's Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre voiced its "vehement condemnation "of the attack near to Babi Yar.

"We call on the international community to take concerted measures to safeguard civilian lives as well as these historical sites because of their irreplaceable value for research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust," Yad Vashem said in a statement.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city, eight people were reported killed in a strike on a residential block on day six of Russia's invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.

Kharkiv officials said 10 more people had been killed by Russian shelling on a local government building, and 10 more were found alive under the rubble.

"This is state terrorism on the part of Russia," said Mr Zelensky, accusing Moscow of committing a "war crime".

Russia has denied targeting civilian infrastructure.

Visiting Estonia today, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the bombardment of Kharkiv "absolutely sickening" and reminiscent of massacres of civilians in Sarajevo in the 1990s.

"It has that feel to me of an atrocity committed against a civilian centre," he said.

Ukraine said more than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed in the conflict so far.

New Delhi said an Indian student was among the victims, killed by shelling in Kharkiv.

During a visit to an airbase in Poland, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Russian President Vladimir Putin had "shattered peace in Europe".

Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky reiterated an urgent appeal for his pro-Western country to be admitted to the European Union.