The second assault hit the hospital in northeastern Ukraine as sufferers evacuated, authorities and witnesses say.
At the least eight folks have died in two consecutive Russian drone assaults on a medical centre within the northeast Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ukrainian officers have mentioned.
The primary assault on Saturday morning killed one individual, and it was adopted by one other assault whereas sufferers and workers had been evacuating, Ukraine’s Inside Minister Ihor Klymenko mentioned.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned on his Telegram channel that Russia had hit the hospital utilizing Shahed drones, stating that eleven folks had been injured.
Sumy lies simply throughout the border from Russia’s Kursk region the place Kyiv launched a shock offensive on August 6, which it says is aimed partly at making a “buffer zone” inside Russia.
Regional prosecutors mentioned the primary assault in Sumy on Saturday passed off at about 7:35am (04:35 GMT), hitting the hospital the place there have been 86 sufferers and 38 workers.
The second assault passed off at about 8:25am (05:25 GMT) as rescuers and police had been offering help and evacuating sufferers on the scene, prosecutors mentioned.
Dobrobat, a volunteer group that helps restore broken properties, wrote on Fb that its volunteers had been working on the scene when the second assault got here.
It posted a video displaying thick smoke, explosions and folks speeding to shelter as sirens wailed.
“Individuals are simply mendacity on the road useless,” a volunteer mentioned, filming himself on the scene on his telephone.
‘Victory plan’
In Russia, the Defence Ministry mentioned Saturday that air defences in a single day had shot down 4 Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod area and one over the Kursk area, each areas bordering Ukraine.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy visited america to lobby support for Ukraine, assembly with US President Joe Biden and Democratic Social gathering presidential candidate Kamala Harris to element what he has described in current weeks as his “victory plan”.
He had beforehand described the five-point plan as a “bridge” in direction of a powerful sufficient negotiating place for Ukraine to force Russia to finish the battle on Kyiv’s phrases.
Earlier than the assembly, Biden introduced an extra $8bn in army support for Ukraine, a bundle together with the availability of Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) munitions to “improve Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities”.
