A shocking image from the scene shows the boy’s father sitting on the ground while holding his son’s lifeless hand. An elderly couple, a 69-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman, were also killed at the bus station. The teenager’s 15-year-old sister, who was waiting with him, was injured and taken to hospital, emergency services said, while a 72-year-old woman was among the injured. The bombing was carried out using “Hurricane” salvo missile systems, the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office said. Ukraine’s presidential office has announced that at least 13 civilians were killed and 40 others injured in Russian shelling across the country over a 24-hour period. Want a quick and special update on the biggest news? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out what you need to know Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow’s military “tasks” in Ukraine have expanded beyond the eastern Donbass region. This was the clearest signal yet from Russia that the country has broadened its invasion targets. According to Reuters, the foreign minister told Russian state media: “Now the geography is different, it’s far from just DPR and LPR, it’s also Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and a number of other regions.” He added that the expansion would continue if the West delivered more weapons to Ukraine. Rescuers load the body of a victim killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv on Wednesday. Credit: AP After failing to capture Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine at the start of the war, Russia said in March it would focus on “liberating the Donbas”. Since then, Vladimir Putin’s forces have seized Luhansk, one of the two provinces that make up Donbas. However, it has yet to capture the rest of the region, Donetsk. Mr Lavrov spoke a day after the White House said it had gathered “ample” new evidence that Russia hopes to annex more Ukrainian territory and could hold a “sham” public vote in September.
