First responders move through the ruins of a publishing house destroyed by a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 23, 2024

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Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1342 GMT:

UK military intelligence reports that Russia is deploying troops from its Africa Corps alongside other forces in eastern Ukraine.

The analysts note the emergence of the Africa Corps from December 2023 with more than 2,000 soldiers and officers and with Wagner Group mercenaries.

UPDATE 1332 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has travelled near the frontline in the northeast of the country to discuss Russia’s 13-day offensive and aerial assaults.

Zelenskiy posted on Telegram:

Today I’m in Kharkiv. I held a meeting regarding the operational situation in the region and preparation for the heating season. Reports on defending the region, in particular in the Vovchansk district, restoration of the damaged energy infrastructure. Special attention was paid to providing accommodation for our people, displaced from the territories of Kharkiv region subjected to enemy shelling.

The President also visited the publishing house in Kharkiv city which was destroyed in Russian missile strikes on Thursday.

UPDATE 1254 GMT:

Germany has delivered another package of military aid to Ukraine.

The assistance includes another 10 Leopard 1 A5 battle tanks; 20 MG3 machine guns for Leopard 2 tanks; Marder infantry fighting vehicles; Dachs armored engineer vehicles; 8,500 rounds of 155mm ammunition; more than 1.5 million rounds of ammunition for firearms; more than 300 MK 556 assault rifles; 70 HLR 338 precision rifles with 60,000 rounds of ammunition; 20 Vector reconnaissance drones with spare parts; and 34 RQ-35 Heidrun reconnaissance drones.

UPDATE 0900 GMT:

The Kremlin has publicly acknowledged for the first time that the Islamic State carried out the March 22 attack on the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, killing 145 people and injuring more than 500.

ISIS claimed responsibility but for months, Russia’s officials put out the fiction that Ukraine’s operatives were behind the assault.

On Thursday, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, said the preparations, financing, and attack were “coordinated via the internet by members of Khorasan Province (IS-K)”, an ISIS branch active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But Bortnikov, speaking at a conference in Kyrgyzstan, still maintained the pretence of Kyiv’s guilt: “The investigation is ongoing, but it is already safe to say that Ukrainian military intelligence is directly involved in this attack.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia killed seven civilians in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine on Thursday, in strikes whose targets included one of the country’s largest printing houses.

The fatalities and more than a dozen injured were in Kharkiv city, where S-300 missiles levelled a factory of Vivat Publishing. One of the slain was taken into an ambulance, but others were burnt beyond recognition, discovered by firefighters one at a time as the rescuers made their way through the smoking ruins.

The Russians carried out 15 strikes across the region against transport infrastructure and the civilian buildings. Eight civilians were injured in the town of Liubotyn, about 10km (6.2 miles) west of Kharkiv city. In Derhachi, another nearby town, 13 people were wounded.

The Russians have been carrying out an intense aerial assault on Kharkiv for months, hoping to break civilian morale and infrastructure. The attacks are now accompanied by a cross-border offensive launched on May 10.

See also Ukraine War, Day 817: 11+ Killed, 27 Wounded in Russia Strike on Lakeside Resort in Kharkiv Region

In his nightly video address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said of Thursday’s “extremely brutal” attack:

Each time such strikes occur and our cities and villages are destroyed, lives are lost, and books and everything that preserves humanity are burned, we must openly say why this is still possible.

Only because Ukraine still has limitations in defense. Both the lack of air defense systems, despite the fact that the world has them, the lack of long-range capabilities for our warriors, and the complete inability to destroy the source of Russian terror near our borders, particularly rocket systems that target Ukraine and our people’s lives.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized the need for additional air defense systems to protect civilians.