(Moscow) Russia on Saturday accused the Ukrainian army of killing 14 people and injuring 24 when it struck a hospital in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Three people were additionally killed in a Russian strike on Konstantynivka.
On Saturday morning, “the Ukrainian armed forces purposely hit the local hospital building with Himars rocket launchers” in the town of Novoaidar, in the Luhansk region, the Russian army said in a statement.
The strike “leaved 14 patients and medical personnel dead and 24 injured”, she said.
The doctors of the establishment had been providing “for several months medical assistance to the civilian population, as to the military”, according to the same source.
“An intentional strike against a known civilian medical facility arguably constitutes a serious war crime of the Kyiv regime,” the statement added.
Deadly Russian strike in the East
Three people were killed and at least fourteen were injured in a Russian strike on Konstantynivka, a town in eastern Ukraine, the region’s governor announced on Saturday.
“The Russians fired on a residential area, damaging four-story buildings, a hotel, garages and vehicles,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on social media.
PHOTO YASUYOSHI CHIBA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Paratroopers from the Ukrainian army wait for their transport in Chasiv Yar, in the east of the country.
“Three civilians were killed. At least two were injured, ”he added, before later reviewing the balance sheet upwards and estimating the number of injured at 14.
The governor said that, on the spot, the rescuers and the police were “carefully documenting another crime of the Russian occupiers” in Ukraine.
Footage posted to Mr Kyrylenko’s Telegram account shows apartment buildings with blown windows and debris strewn around the charred wreckage of a car.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russia carried out attacks on Konstantynivka with multiple rocket launchers.
Almost a year after its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow is seeking to take control of the entire Donetsk region, which it has already declared an integral part of Russia.
Kyiv said this week that Russian troops had stepped up attacks in the east, including on the towns of Vougledar and Bakhmout.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that the situation on the front lines was extremely difficult, especially in the Donetsk region.