KYIV: Russian forces struck a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, adding that “dead and wounded are reported”.
A “guided air bomb” hit the centre in Kupiansk, a city a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border, Zelensky said on social media.
“Rescuers are extinguishing the fire,“ he said, adding: “This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression.”
The reported strike came shortly after Zelensky said Russian missiles had hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, one of several companies requisitioned by the government since Moscow's invasion.
Strikes also hit the region of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, around 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Kyiv.
The Khmelnytskyi region, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines of the fighting and home to a major Ukrainian airbase, has been regularly targeted by Russian strikes in recent months.
The Russian attacks came after Ukraine carried out a drone strike overnight on a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait, a day after another Russian ship was hit in the Black Sea. - AFP