"They are monsters": Kharkiv residents condemn Russian attack on historic building

Residents in Kharkiv have described a Russian attack on Monday night on the city's historic Derzhprom building as "pure horror" and an act of deliberate cultural vandalism against a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

- Luke Harding

A Russian bomb hit the Unesco-listed constructivist building shortly after 9pm. Nine people were injured. The skyscraper - completed in 1928 - suffered extensive damage. Four people died early yesterday in a separate strike on the city.

"They are monsters, with no civilised values. The Russians bring hell," said Denys Bohdanov as he surveyed the damage. The powerful FAB-500 bomb hit third floor-offices, shearing off a corner of the building and exposing an internal zig-zag staircase.

Windows were blown out. Yesterday rescuers tossed glass and door frames from broken upper stories onto a courtyard below. A truck and digger scooped up debris. Many of the rooms inside were left with buckled ceilings and walls, and thick dust.

Derzhprom was designed to showcase Soviet innovation and a belief in the future. It was constructed when Kharkiv was the capital of communist Ukraine. It survived the second world war and after Ukraine's independence became a government office.