Two die, 30 wounded by strike on clinic in Ukraine’s Dnipro

TOPSHOT – This handout photograph released on May 26, 2023 by the Telegram account of Serhiy Lysak, the head of the Dnipropetrovks Regional Military Administration, shows the fire at a medical facility, the site of a missile strike, in the city of Dnipro, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Handout / Telegram account of Serhiy Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovks regional military administration / AFP)

KYIV, Ukraine, May 26, 2023 (AFP) – A Russian missile on Friday morning struck a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing two and injuring 30 including two children, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of smoke billowing from roofless buildings with blown-out windows.

“There are already 30 victims, including two children. There is still no contact with three people who may have been here,” the head of the regional military administration Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram.

He said the missile hit a residential area with a medical and veterinary clinic and high-rise blocks.

“A 69-year-old man died. He was just passing by when a Russian terrorist missile hit the city,” Lysak said of one victim.

He added that the body of another man had been found in the rubble of the veterinary clinic.

Zelensky said that by hitting civilian medical facilities, “Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest.”

His wife Olena Zelenska tweeted that the attack showed a “terrible level of cynicism”.

The missile hit a clinic that offered mental health services as part of a larger hospital, said city mayor Borys Filatov in a video post.

Lysak said the injured included two boys aged three and six, who have been hospitalised along with 19 others.

Local media posted video footage of rescuers helping people with blood on their faces escape from the clinic through corridors full of rubble.

The three-storey building was partially destroyed and a fire spread over 1,000 square metres, Lysak wrote on Telegram, posting a video of firefighters aiming hoses at the smoking rubble.

Lysak said earlier that the Dnipropetrovsk region was “massively attacked” overnight “with rockets and drones”.

In the city of Dnipro, overnight shelling set fire to a house and damaged two others, he said.