Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv accuses Russia of war crime after attack on military hospital in Kharkiv

Russian drones struck a military hospital, shopping centre, apartment blocks and other targets in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, late on Saturday, killing two people and injuring at least 25, local officials and the Ukrainian military said. On the Telegram messaging app, the military’s general staff said those injured included servicemen undergoing treatment in the medical centre. It accused Russia of having carried out a “war crime” and of “violating the norms of international humanitarian law” denouncing the “deliberate, targeted shelling” of the facility. Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, said 25 people were hurt, including a 15-year-old girl who is in serious condition.

An hour before the Kharkiv attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine expected a strong response from western countries to the near daily Russian drone attacks on its territory. Earlier, drones hit the south-eastern city of Dnipro, killing four people, and the central city of Kryvyi Rih, where nine others were injured. “We expect a response, a serious response. We are working to ensure there is a strong reaction, especially from America, Europe and all those in the world who rely on diplomacy,” said Zelenskyy. He said that Russia’s response to US ceasefire efforts had been inadequate “for too long”, and that Moscow needed to be pressured into a peace deal.

Zelenskyyalso said Russia had launched more than 170 drones into Ukraine overnight, striking targets in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions. He said that Ukraine was “maintaining active measures” to prevent Russia from advancing into Sumy and Kharkiv regions, and that that Ukrainian forces had taken “certain steps” in Russia outside the Kursk region to ease pressure on Ukrainian troops in the area.

Russia on Saturday claimed the capture of two villages in eastern and southern Ukraine, pressing ahead with its advance amid stumbling efforts for a ceasefire. The defence ministry said Moscow’s forces captured the village of Shchebraki in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Panteleimonivka in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces also captured the settlement of Veselivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, Russian state-run news agency Tass reported on Saturday, citing the Russian defence ministry. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday accused Ukraine of attacking Russian energy facilities in the past 24 hours despite a moratorium on striking each other’s energy infrastructure. The ministry said Ukraine attacked power grids in the Belgorod region several times leaving about 9,000 residents without power supply. Reuters could not immediately confirm the account. Both sides this week claimed there were fresh violations as the land war continued unabated.

Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize the pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks, according to Ukrainian government and military analysts who spoke to The Associated Press. The Ukrainian officials said the move could give Vladimir Putin every reason to delay discussions about pausing the fighting in favour of seeking more land. Ukrainian leaders have argued repeatedly that Russia has no intention of engaging in meaningful dialogue to end the war. “They’re dragging out the talks and trying to get the US stuck in endless and pointless discussions about fake ‘conditions’ just to buy time and then try to grab more land,” Zelenskyy said on Thursday in a visit to Paris. Two G7 diplomatic officials in Kyiv agreed with that assessment.