Kharkiv TV tower can be restored when the hostilities end, says the Kharkiv OMA

Specialists are examining the Kharkiv TV tower destroyed by the Russians to assess the extent of the damage, said Ivan Sokol, director of the Civil Protection Department of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, on Radio Liberty.

He explained that the TV tower was built in a way that makes restoring it impossible until the hostilities end.

According to Ivan Sokol, the strike on the TV tower was Russia's attempt to intimidate Ukrainians.

"Imagine: a missile strike effectively hitting the tower, which is the highest object in Kharkiv, in broad daylight, at 4:40 p.m. Of course, it worried people a little," he said.

Ivan Sokol also noted that there is currently no digital television in the area previously covered by ​​the destroyed TV tower.

Background

On April 22, the Russian troops targeted a TV tower in Kharkiv, destroying it. People reported interruptions in the digital television signal.

The Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office opened a case over the April 22 shelling strike on the Kharkiv television tower.

The Russians resumed the shelling of Ukrainian TV and radio infrastructure in 2024.

Previously, the IMI recorded such incidents back at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022 (back then, 16 cases of the Russians shelling TV towers, which are civilian objects, were recorded).

In March 2024, the Russian troops deliberately struck TV infrastructure in Kharkiv oblast with drones. They also carried out missile and air strikes on the radio facilities in the Sumy oblast, leaving some municipalities without TV or radio signal. Later, Suspilne reported that due to the strikes their T2 TV channels and radio channels were temporarily unavailable in both oblasts.

The Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration chair Oleh Syneguhov said that the Russians deliberately mass targeted the television and radio infrastructure of Kharkiv Oblast with drones on the night of March 14.