KYIV: A Russian strike on a children’s hospital in southern Ukraine wounded at least nine people, including four children, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, accusing Moscow of a “war crime”.
The attack was in Kherson, a city Russian forces temporarily occupied in 2022. It still faces regular shelling and drone strikes from Moscow’s troops on the opposite side of the Dnipro river, the de facto front line snaking through southern Ukraine.
Russia has hit several hospitals and medical facilities during its invasion, though Moscow says it only targets military sites.
“The enemy opened fire on a children’s hospital in Kherson,” said Ukraine’s ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Ukraine targets Moscow with dozens of drones, Russia says
“Nine people were wounded – among them four children and three medical workers.”
City officials published a video showing a building with shattered windows, debris strewn across stretchers and medical equipment with bloodstains on the floor of the facility.
“Targeting medical institutions and civilian infrastructure is not warfare – it’s purely terrorism and a grave violation of international humanitarian law,” said Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Separate Russian strikes on the southern region of Odesa caused large-scale power cuts, as Moscow intensifies its strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Similar campaigns in previous winters plunged millions into darkness and cut off heating in freezing temperatures.
Around 27,000 households were without power in the Odesa region on Wednesday morning, energy company DTEK said.
“The damage is significant. Repairs will take time,” the company said.
Ukraine has also kept up its own campaign of retaliatory strikes on Russia.
Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack had killed at least one person and wounded three in the border village of Shebekino.
Russia’s defence ministry said its troops had advanced on the front line, capturing the village of Vyshneve in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.
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