"A crime against humanity". It is with these words that Volodymyr Zelensky defined the Russian strike targeting a clinic in Dnipro this Friday morning. At least one person was killed and fifteen others, including two children aged 3 and 6, injured in the strike on the health facility in east-central Ukraine, authorities said.
The Ukrainian president published a video on Telegram, picked up by the Kyiv Independent, in which buildings can be seen heavily damaged and topped with plumes of black smoke. "We must defeat these inhuman beings," Zelensky said of the Russian military.
⚡️Zelensky: 1 killed, 15 injured in Russian strike on clinic in Dnipro.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the rescue operation is ongoing at the site of the missile strike that Russian forces launched on the morning of May 26.
Video: President's Office pic.twitter.com/AWoJfZa1J1
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) May 26, 2023
"The rescue of the wounded continues," the official added regional governor Sergei Lysak on Telegram, adding that the strike caused a fire in two buildings. "The fire affected a total of 500 m2. Firefighters are fighting the flames," he said.
#Rashists also shelled Gulyaipole in Zaporizhzhia and Avdiivka in Donetsk region. In Gulyaipol, residential buildings were covered and destroyed by enemy artillery. 2 injured women were pulled out from under the rubble. An airstrike destroyed a residential building in Avdiivka -... pic.twitter.com/EbuQQ6G6Or
— Devana 🇺🇦 (@DevanaUkraine) May 26, 2023
Several Ukrainian Telegram channels published videos of rescuers helping people covered in blood escape from the clinic through corridors full of rubble.
According to Sergei Lysak, his region of Dnipropetrovsk was also "massively attacked" during the night by Russian "missiles and drones".
France condemns 'unacceptable' acts
"The France condemns in the strongest terms the Russian missile and drone strikes that again targeted Kiev as well as the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions last night," the French Foreign Ministry said following the attack.
"These strikes have once again deliberately targeted civilian targets, including a hospital in Dnipro, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law." The ministry speaks of "unacceptable acts constituting war crimes" that "cannot go unpunished".
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Since early May, Russia has intensified its air attacks, often at night, against Ukraine. Kiev, the capital, has suffered thirteen night attacks since the beginning of the month, according to the authorities who claim to have repelled them all.
For its part, Moscow reported Ukrainian bombing of a Russian border region for the fifth day in a row.
The Belgorod region has suffered dozens of artillery shells in the past 24 hours, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, which has caused material damage but no casualties.