ALERT: Putin has commenced the annihilation of Ukraine's second largest city - Kharkiv - amid signs that he intends to annex it for Russia

Russian forces on Sunday conducted attacks on the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, where Russia has unveiled a new flag that could indicate it plans to annex the parts of the industrial province it now occupies.

In the city of Kharkiv, volunteers swept up glass shards at a school hit by a rocket in the Slobidsky district early on Sunday. Video taken by a volunteer showed shattered windows, collapsed ceilings and twisted metal on the ground. Pink paper hearts still decorated a blackboard in one of the classrooms, empty for the summer holiday.

It was one of two rocket attacks to hit the city early Sunday, the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s office said.

The target of the attack that struck the school was unclear; a nearby police station remained untouched. School is out of session for the summer.

About half of the population of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, has already fled the city due to the Russian attacks.

“They are trying to spread panic among the people — that is the way Russia fights,” said Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian Legion.

Mr. Mamulashvili said Russia was preparing to launch bigger attacks on Kharkiv. “We have information that they are getting ready for missile attacks and artillery attacks and we are from our side getting ready too,” he said.

Ukrainian officials estimate that Russia occupies about 30 percent of the Kharkiv region. Four days ago, Russia established a civilian administration in the border areas of Kharkiv province that it now controls, unveiling a flag which the state news agency Tass said “symbolizes historical links of the Kharkiv region with the traditions” of Russia.

The Institute for the Study of War said the local occupation government’s description of the flag, which has the Russian double-headed eagle and 18th century imagery, as a “symbol of the historical roots of Kharkiv Oblast as an inalienable part of Russian land,” was an indication that the Kremlin intends to annex the territory rather than declare it a pro-Russian republic.

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