This is the shocking moment a giant TV tower collapsed in a cloud of smoke during a Russian bombing raid on Ukraine’s second largest city.
The 790-foot-tall main television tower was destroyed Monday in war-torn Kharkiv after authorities reported a Russian airstrike on the city.
Video footage and photographs posted on social media showed the top of the tower breaking and gray smoke billowing from the structure moments after the attack.
Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said in a social media post that Russia had attacked a “television infrastructure facility in Kharkiv.”
According to Synegubov, the attack caused widespread communications outages throughout the city.
The 230-meter-high Kharkiv television tower was destroyed today in a Russian airstrike
‘The employees were sheltering during the alarm. There are no victims. At the moment there are interruptions in the digital television signal,’ he added.
Footage of the incident captured by a local from the window of a building showed the moment the tip of the tower plummeted to the ground in what appears to be a forest area.
Although there is no explosion when the piece of metal hits the ground, thick smoke can be seen hanging in the air above the destroyed television tower as the sun shines on the rest of the city.
Following the Russian airstrike, the European Center for Press and Media Freedom stated: ‘Russia’s destruction of a television tower in Kharkiv is an attack on press freedom and access to information .
“We condemn this act of aggression against media infrastructure and support all journalists who work to report the truth in times of war.”
The Kharkiv Television Tower is a steel-framed television tower used for television and FM broadcasting in Kharkiv.
It was once the tallest building in the city and the fifth tallest television tower in Ukraine.
Images circulating on social media captured the moment the steel structure collapsed after being hit.
This is not the first time Russia has attacked the Kharkiv Television Tower, however, during the Battle of Kharkiv, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 6, 2022, the tower and the station’s administrative building They were hit by eight FABs. -500 bombs from a Russian Su-3 fighter plane.
As a result of the impact, the station building and the self-supporting mental structure of the tower were seriously damaged.
The fighter jet was shot down by the Ukrainian armed forces just after the bombs were dropped.
The Russian pilot ejected, landed and was detained by the Ukrainian National Guard before being sentenced to 12 years in a Ukrainian prison a year later.
Today’s attack comes amid a broader campaign of Russian attacks aimed at destroying Ukrainian infrastructure.
Several attacks in recent months have dangerously targeted Ukraine’s nuclear plants as Russia continues to carry out its offensive in the war-torn country.
Earlier this month, a drone attack that hit Russia’s Zaporizhizhia power plant in Ukraine three times was warned that it could lead to a “major” radiation incident, the U.N. atomic watchdog said at the time. moment.
During the attack, one of the facility’s six reactors was hit and three people were injured.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has previously urged both Moscow and kyiv to refrain from attacking the Zaporizhizhia plant.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi called the attacks “reckless” and “a significant escalation of the nuclear security dangers” facing the plant.
Spokesman for Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate Andriy Yusov accused Russia of endangering not only the plant, but also civilians and the environment by carrying out attacks on a nuclear facility.
In 2022, Ukraine regained large swathes of territory in the Kharkiv region while fighting Moscow’s forces after the invasion began that year.
The Kharkiv Television Tower is a steel structure television tower used for television and FM broadcasts in Kharkiv.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has chillingly warned that Russia could try to seize control of Ukraine’s second-largest city behind the capital kyiv.
He told German newspaper Bild: “Kharkov is one of the capitals of Ukraine, so it has a lot of symbolic meaning.”
He added that Ukraine is “doing everything possible” to prevent Russian forces from taking the city.
Zelensky warned that Russia could launch a summer offensive at the end of May, adding: “We will prepare for their attack.”