CNN
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At least two people have been killed and dozens more injured after Russian troops attacked a medical facility in the city of Dnipro on Friday morning following heavy shelling over central Ukraine overnight.
A 69-year-old man was killed as he “passed just as the rocket hit the city,” and the body of another man “was pulled from the rubble,” said Serhii Lysak, head of the regional military administration.
CNN localized the attack to Dnipropetrovsk City Hospital No. 14 and a veterinary clinic in an industrial district north of the Dnipro River in the central Ukrainian city. The explosions in Dnipro occurred around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, according to CCTV.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force reported attacks on the Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk regions from 10 p.m. Thursday night to 5 a.m. Friday morning.
The air command reported 17 cruise missiles and 31 “attack drones” and noted that there were attacks in the Dnipro and Kharkiv regions using S-300/S-400 missile systems.
Kiev also saw some airstrikes in the city, according to Serhii Popko, head of the city’s military administration. He added that there were no casualties.
Serhii Lysak via Telegram/Reuters
Russian attacks hit a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on May 26, 2023.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine via AP
Firefighters carry a body after the deadly Russian attack in Dnipro that left at least two dead.
According to the head of the Dnipro Regional Council, Mykola Lukashuk, about 31 people were injured in the bombing in Dnipro, including eight doctors and two children. Among the injured, 16 people were taken to hospitals and the others are receiving outpatient treatment, Lukashuk said in a Telegram post.
Rescue operations were underway Friday afternoon, with workers searching for survivors under the rubble. Three people were missing after the attack.
Scenes emerged of fires raging through one of the medical clinic buildings. The video, posted by Lysak, also showed smoke pouring from the windows and a totally collapsed roof.
A CNN team on the ground saw rescuers stand on cranes and lower water hoses over the wreckage, while diggers cleared the debris.
Dnipro mayor Boris Filatov said a shift change for doctors meant fewer people than usual were working at the facility at the time of the attack.
“When the rocket hit there, there was a change of shifts. Hopefully there will be no more casualties,” Filatov told journalists on the hospital grounds.
“It’s a miracle that the rocket hit when the doctors switched shifts.” He added that there were outpatient consultations when the attack happened.
The clinic is used to treat mentally ill patients and also houses an inpatient treatment facility, the mayor said.
Kiev and its Western allies strongly condemned the Kremlin’s attack on central Ukraine and called for accountability for the Russian attacks.
France called them “war crimes” that “cannot go unpunished,” according to a statement from the French foreign ministry.
The missile and drone attacks on Kiev and Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions were “again deliberately targeting civilian sites,” the ministry said, “in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday: “Russian terrorists reaffirm their status as fighters against all that is humane and fair.”
“The aftermath of the shelling is eliminated and the victims are rescued. All necessary services are involved,” he added.