Kiev, 23 April 2024 (dpa/MIA) - A 240-metre-high television tower in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was severely damaged in a Russian attack on Monday.

Videos posted on social media showed the top of the tower plummeting to the ground with smoke rising in the background.

Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram that the signal's transmission was disrupted. No one was killed or injured.

The public prosecutors office said the tower was attacked with a Kh-59 air-to-ground missile, according to an initial assessment.

TV towers in Ukraine have been bombed or hit with rockets several times with the aim of cutting off the population's access to information.

The television tower in Kharkiv, which went into operation in 1981, provides the region with radio and television reception and is located 6 kilometres from the city centre.

Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, is home to about 1 million people. Residents have been subjected to heavy fire on a near daily basis since mid-March.

Worries are mounting that Russia is using the bombardments to lay the groundwork for a bigger offensive in the summer. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said recently that Moscow wanted to "bomb Kharkiv to the ground."

Electricity is only available a few hours a day in the city due to a string of devastating strikes on energy infrastructure and residential buildings.

Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry in Moscow said its troops have seized the village of Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the Defence Ministry reported in Moscow.

The capture of the village, which lies just over 20 kilometres to the south-west of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk, had improved the tactical position of the Russian forces, the ministry said.

Kiev has not yet confirmed the advance.

Ukraine's General Staff report referred to attacks in the region that had been repulsed, but Ukrainian military observers reported overnight that the village was under Russian control.

Photo: Instagram screeshot