Moscow, January 17 – The Russian military has successfully targeted and destroyed a temporary base of foreign mercenaries in Kharkiv, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense. The attack, carried out on the evening of January 16 by the Armed Forces of Russia, specifically targeted a group of French mercenaries. The operation resulted in the elimination of over 60 mercenaries, with more than 20 injured individuals being transported to medical facilities. The building housing the mercenaries was completely destroyed.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, had reported explosions in the city prior to this incident. According to an online map provided by the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, an air alarm was declared in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions at that time. In response to the shelling of civilian targets in Russia by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian military has been carrying out missile strikes on energy facilities, defense industries, military command centers, and communication infrastructure in the former Soviet republic. Ukrainian regions are being alerted about the missile threat on a daily basis, and sometimes the entire country is put on high alert. However, as Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly emphasized, residential buildings and social infrastructure in Ukraine are not targeted by the military.
