Wreckage of a car at Freedom Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine after the explosion. [Courtesy]
At least 10 people have been killed and 35 more were injured after Russian missiles and rockets hit the cultural heart of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, BBC reports.
Officials have described that attack as a 'deadly and cruel' attack.
An opera house, a concert hall and regional government headquarters were also hit in Freedom Square, in the centre of the north-eastern city, local authorities have said.
The attack came shortly after the Ukrainian president said Russia was committing war crimes.
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"This is the price of freedom," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"This is terror against Ukraine. There were no military targets in the square - nor are they in those residential districts of Kharkiv which come under rocket artillery fire," he added.
Video footage circulating online shows a missile hitting the local government building and exploding, causing a massive fireball and blowing out windows of surrounding buildings.
Freedom Square is the second-largest city-centre square in Europe and a landmark of the city.
Kharkiv has been bombed heavily for days now and 16 people were killed before this latest attack, Mr Zelensky said.
His government has accused Russia of trying to lay siege to Kharkiv and other cities, including the capital Kyiv, where a huge Russian armoured convoy is approaching.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the world must do more to punish Russia for the "barbaric" attack on Freedom Square and residential neighbourhoods, accusing the Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing "more war crimes out of fury, murdering innocent civilians".
