How Kharkiv is coping after 2 years of Russian strikes

GEOFF BENNETT: Another deadly Russian strike in Ukraine today killed at least 17 people and injured many more less than 100 miles from the capital city of Kyiv.

Amna Nawaz continues her reporting tonight from Ukraine, and joins us from Kyiv.

Amna, it's great to see you.

What more do we know about today's strike?

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Geoff, officials say the three Russian cruise missiles hit the center of this northern town of Chernihiv today.

That's just about 65 miles from the Russian border.

And that strike occurred just after 9:00 this morning at a very busy time in that city center.

Multiple residential buildings were hit.

We're told an educational facility was damaged as well, as well as a hospital, this video from inside that hospital during the attack that shows the moment that the strikes came down, people dropping to the ground as glass shatters around them.

As you said, Geoff, 17 people confirmed dead so far, at least 61 injured.

That includes three children.

And officials warn those numbers could rise because there could still be people buried underneath the rubble.

But those figures do now make this the deadliest Russian strike in Ukraine in weeks -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we know that Russia has been intensifying its airstrikes in recent weeks, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has been requesting more air defense support from the U.S. and Western allies.

What did you hear from him today?

AMNA NAWAZ: President Zelenskyy was quite blunt in his assessment directly linking the lack of that additional aid to the death toll today.

Here's what he said in part.

He said: "This would not have happened if Ukraine had received sufficient air defense and if the world had been determined enough to counter Russian terror."

He has, as you mentioned, been calling for U.S. lawmakers to move forward with additional U.S. aid that Republicans and Congress have been holding up for more than six months now.

And President Zelenskyy was actually just in this city of Chernihiv a couple of weeks ago, sort of underscoring how crucial it is to be protecting these border cities with Russia.

We got a front-line view of what life is like in one of those cities today.

We went to the northern city of Kharkiv.

It sits just 19 miles from the Russian border, and it is Ukraine's second largest city.

Kharkiv has been hit consistently and relentlessly since the Russian full-scale invasion over two years ago.

And officials and residents tell us those attacks have been ramping up in recent weeks.

As you walk around the city landscape, Geoff, it's just peppered with piles of debris and damaged buildings and rubble and boarded-up windows.

And even now, there's Russian aerial bombs, there's modified missiles, and there's drones.

And because of their proximity to the Russian border, the time that it takes from something to leave a launch site in Russia and hit the ground in Kharkiv can be less than a minute.

Even during our time on the ground today, there were multiple air alerts, sirens, and that was just over the course of a single day -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, after more than two years of that, how are residents there faring?

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, the cumulative toll is really starting to take hold.

We heard that from a young woman we met named Lisa, who is 20 years old.

She'd lived in Kharkiv for a whole life.

Like many who live there, they fled after the Russian invasion and the initial bombardment of the city.

They went to Western Ukraine.

But after a few months she came back.

And when I asked her why, she said she missed her home.

But she also said, if she had to be considering whether she was going to live or die each day, she'd rather do it in a place that she knew and loved.

But she told us a little bit about what she called this new normal of living in this border city of Kharkiv.

Here's what she said.

LISA, Kharkiv Resident: You wake up, you read news.

Like, another bombarded plant, like 10 -- 10 people are dead.

So it's really depressing to know that it's happening right now, right here.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, Geoff, the fabric of just everyday life in Kharkiv and cities like it is really frayed right now.

There's not just the threats of strikes and the loss of life that they have to cope with.

A Kharkiv official told me that at this point in the war, Russian forces have now targeted every single piece of their infrastructure.

That includes electrical and water and TV and radio and mobile lines.

So they're in rolling blackouts right now because all of their power plants have been hit, and they say they lack the air defenses to properly actually protect them.

The new wrinkle here is the growing concern that, in the coming weeks or months ahead, there could be a potential for Russian forces to launch a ground invasion into Kharkiv.

That's what residents are worried about right now -- Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, Amna Nawaz and our team tonight in Kyiv.

Amna, thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thanks, Geoff.