The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has called it a serious war crime.
Kyiv:
A Russian missile struck a clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring 23 in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as a crime against humanity.
Video footage showed a collapsed building with smoke billowing out of it as rescue workers looked on. Much of the top floor of what appeared to be a three-story building was badly damaged. A covered corpse was lying on the road nearby.
“Another (Russian) missile attack, another crime against humanity,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter, describing damage to a psychiatric clinic and a veterinary clinic in Dnipro.
“Only a rogue state could fight against the clinics. There can be no military purpose in this. This is pure Russian terror.”
Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said a 69-year-old man had been killed, adding: “He was passing by when a rocket from Russian terrorists hit the town.”
The governor said another person’s body had been pulled from the rubble and 21 of the 23 injured had been taken to hospital. He said three were seriously injured.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry called this a serious war crime under the Geneva Conventions, which set out how soldiers and civilians should be treated in wartime.
Russia did not immediately comment on the events in Dnipro, a large city that has come under frequent fire since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive 15 months ago.
Moscow has rejected allegations that its troops committed war crimes and denies deliberately targeting civilians, although its airstrikes have often hit civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings and medical facilities.
all night attack
Moscow said on Friday that Ukraine had launched a rocket and a drone attack on two regions of southern Russia, but the missiles were shot down by its air defense forces.
Ukraine said its air defense system shot down 10 missiles fired by Russia and more than 20 drones overnight in Dnipro, the capital Kiev and eastern regions.
Zelensky’s office said an oil depot on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Kharkiv was on fire after it was hit twice and equipment for pumping oil products was damaged.
A senior military intelligence official said last week that after months of attacks on energy infrastructure, Russia has shifted the focus of its missile strikes to try to disrupt Ukrainian retaliatory preparations. He said attacks are increasingly targeting military facilities and supplies.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)