Since Kremlin staged fresh incursion on 10 May, strikes have increased threefold, destroying buildings and killing dozens

The apartment at 24 Liubovi Maloi avenue was an eerie ruin. Its roof and outer walls had disappeared. In one corner a row of suits hung in a wardrobe. There was a TV, a coffee cup, and a maroon jacket on a peg. And a black and white photo album with old family snaps, taken in communist times. The flat’s inhabitants, however – Svitlana Vlasenko and her grown-up daughter Polina – were not coming back.

The Russian missile that fell on their building on a Friday night killed them and six of their neighbours. Twenty-six people were injured, two of them children. The street in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, was not near any military objects. It was a quiet place, of flowerbeds, communal benches and a sandy children’s play area. Residents walked their dogs in a resin-scented pine forest – also hit in the strike on 31 May by five S-300 rockets.