Moment giant TV tower collapses in cloud of smoke during Russian bombing raid on Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv

This is the shocking moment a giant TV tower collapsed in a cloud of smoke during a Russian bombing raid on Ukraine's second biggest city.

The major 790ft-tall TV tower was broken apart on Monday in war-torn Kharkiv, after officials reported a Russian air attack on the city.

Video footage and photographs posted on social media showed the top of the tower snapping off and grey smoke billowing from the structure moments after the strike.

Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov said in a social media post that Russia had hit a 'television infrastructure facility in Kharkiv.'

According to Synegubov, the hit prompted widespread communications outages across the city. 

The 790ft Kharkiv TV Tower was today destroyed in a Russian air strike

'Employees were sheltering during the alarm. There are no casualties. At the moment, there are interruptions with the digital television signal,' he added.

Footage of the incident captured by a local from a building window, showed the moment the towers point plummeted groundward into what appears to be a forest area.

Although there is no explosion when the metal piece hits the ground, thick smoke can be seen lingering in the air above the destroyed TV tower as the sun shines down onto the rest of the city.

Following the Russian air attack, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom said: 'Russia's destruction of a TV tower in Kharkiv is an attack on press freedom and access to information. 

'We condemn this act of aggression against media infrastructure and stand with all journalists working to report the truth in times of war'.

The Kharkiv TV Tower is a steel truss television tower used for FM and TV broadcasting in Kharkiv.

It was once the tallest building in the city and the fifth tallest TV tower in Ukraine.

Footage circulating on social media captured the moment the steel structure came toppling down after being hit

This is not the first time Russia has struck the Kharkiv TV Tower, however, as during the Battle of Kharkiv, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on March 6, 2022, the tower and the stations administrative building were struck by eight FAB-500 bombs from a Russian Su-3 fighter jet.

The station's building and the tower's self-supporting mental structure sustained heavy damage as a result of the hit.

The fighter jet was shot down by Ukrainian armed forces right after the bombs were dropped.

The Russian pilot ejected, landed, and was detained by the National Guard of Ukraine before being sentenced o 12 years in an Ukrainian prison a year later.

Today's strike comes amid a wider campaign of Russian strikes aimed at destroying Ukrainian infrastructure.

Several strikes in recent months have dangerously targeted Ukraine's nuclear plants as Russia continues to carry out its offensive in the war-torn country.

Earlier this month a drone attack that hit the Russian-held Zaporizhizhia power plant in Ukraine three times was warned could spark a 'major' radiation incident, said the UN's atomic watchdog at the time.

During the attack, one of the facility's six reactors was hit, and resulted in three people being left injured.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has previously urged both Moscow and Kyiv to restrain from targeting the Zaporizhizhia plant.

The IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi deemed the strikes as 'reckless' and 'a major escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers' facing the plant.

Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate spokesman Andriy Yusov accused Russia of not only endangering the plant, but also the civilian population and the environment by carrying out attacks on a nuclear facility.

In 2022, Ukraine took back large swathes of territory in the Kharkiv region as it fought back Moscow's forces following the beginning of the invasion that year.

The Kharkiv TV Tower is a steel truss television tower used for FM and TV broadcasting in Kharkiv

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has chillingly warned that Russian could try and gain control over Ukraine's second biggest city behind the capital, Kyiv.

He told German newspaper Bild: 'Kharkiv is one of the capitals of Ukraine, so it has great symbolic meaning'.

He added that Ukraine is 'doing everything we can' to prevent Russian forces from taking the city.

Zelensky warned that Russia could launch a summer offensive as early as late May, adding: 'We will prepare for their assault.'