Extract from ABC News
A Russian missile hit a clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least two people and wounding 23 in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a crime against humanity.
Key points:
- A Russian rocket hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro
- The Ukrainian President says it destroyed a medical clinic
- He called the attack "a crime against humanity"
Video footage showed a devastated building with smoke pouring out of it and rescue workers looking on.
Much of the upper floor of what appeared to be a three-storey building had been badly damaged. A covered corpse lay in the road nearby.
Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said 21 of those that were wounded were in hospital, and three were in serious condition.
Earlier, Mr Zelenskyy posted a video of the damaged clinic that showed rescue workers at the scene and smoke billowing out of a collapsed roof.
"Another [Russian] missile attack, another crime against humanity," he said on Twitter, describing the damage to a psychological clinic and a veterinary clinic in Dnipro.
"Only an evil state can fight against clinics. There can be no military purpose in this. It is pure Russian terror."
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said it was "a serious war crime" under the Geneva Conventions, which set out how soldiers and civilians should be treated in war.
Mr Lysak said a 69-year-old man had been killed, adding: "He was just passing by when the Russian terrorists' rocket hit the city."
He added that another man's body had been pulled out of the rubble.
Russia did not immediately comment on the events in Dnipro, a large city that has frequently come under fire since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine 15 months ago.
Moscow has dismissed allegations that its soldiers have committed war crimes and denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian officials said that air defences had shot down 10 missiles and more than 20 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks on the capital Kyiv, as well as Dnipro and other eastern cities.
Russia says it hit ammunition depots
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had carried out an overnight strike on Ukrainian ammunition depots.
"The target of the strike has been achieved. All designated facilities were hit," the RIA news agency quoted it as saying.
Moscow has dismissed allegations that its soldiers have committed war crimes and denies deliberately targeting civilians, although it has bombarded cities across Ukraine since invading 15 months ago.
Moscow said earlier on Friday Ukraine had struck two regions in southern Russia with a rocket and a drone, but the missile was shot down.
Ukraine said it had shot down 10 missiles and more than 20 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks on Dnipro, Kyiv and eastern regions.
Mr Zelenskyy's office said a fire had broken out on the outskirts of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv after an oil depot was hit twice, and that equipment for pumping oil products had been damaged.
After months of attacks on energy infrastructure, Russia has shifted the focus of its missile strikes to try to disrupt preparations for a Ukrainian counterattack, a senior military intelligence official said last week.
Attacks were increasingly targeting military facilities and supplies, he said.
Russia's Belgorod region under artillery fire
Russia's southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine came under attack Friday from Ukrainian artillery fire, mortar shells and drones, authorities said, hours after two drones struck a Russian city in an area next to the annexed Crimea Peninsula.
The town of Graivoron in Russia's Belgorod region, about 7 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, came under fire for several hours, damaging four houses, a store, a car, a gas pipeline and a power line, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
Closer to the frontier, a recreation centre, a shop and an empty house were damaged in the village of Glotovo. One woman was wounded when nearby Novaya Tavolzhanka was shelled, Mr Gladkov said.
Earlier this week, the Belgorod region was the target of one of the most serious cross-border attacks from Ukraine since the war began.
Details of the raid were murky. Russia blamed the Ukrainian armed forces, but two Russian groups said they were involved, with the aim of bringing down Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Officials in Russia's southern city of Krasnodar, in the region of the same name bordering Crimea, said two drones struck there. Witnesses told local media they heard something like the sound of a moped and then two explosions.
The blasts smashed a hole in the roof of one building and blew out windows in an apartment building.
"We just went to bed and then there was such a strong, terrible boom," said resident Tatiana Safonova.
"We ran outside. There were people running, but nothing else was going on."
She described the sound beforehand "like a growling, noisy moped driving by."
Krasnodar regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev wrote on Telegram that there were no casualties and that some buildings were damaged but essential infrastructure was unharmed.
Drone attacks against Russian border regions have been a regular occurrence since the start of the invasion in February 2022, with attacks increasing last month.
Earlier this month, an oil refinery in Krasnodar was attacked by drones on two straight days.
Reuters
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