CNN
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At least two people died and dozens more were injured after Russian forces struck a medical facility in the city of Dnipro on Friday morning after heavy shelling rained down on central Ukraine overnight .
A 69-year-old man was killed as he “passed by just as the rocket hit the town”, and the body of another man “was pulled from the rubble”, said Serhii Lysak, head of the regional military administration.
CNN geolocated 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. Friday, according to CCTV.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force reported strikes on Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions from 10 p.m. Thursday night to 5 a.m. Friday morning.
The Air Force Command reported 17 cruise missiles and 31 “attack drones” and noted that there had been strikes in the Dnipro and Kharkiv regions using S-300/S-400 missiles.
kyiv has also seen airstrikes across 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 airstrikes hit a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on May 26, 2023.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service via AP
Firefighters carry a body after the deadly Russian attack in Dnipro that left at least two people dead.
About 31 people were injured in the Dnipro shelling, including eight doctors and two children, according to the head of the Dnipro regional council, Mykola Lukashuk. Of the injured, 16 people have been taken to hospitals and the rest are receiving outpatient treatment, Lukashuk said in a Telegram post.
Rescue operations were continuing Friday afternoon, with workers searching for survivors under the rubble. Three people were missing following the attack.
Scenes emerged of fires tearing through one of the medical clinic buildings. The video, posted by Lysak, also showed smoke coming out of windows and a totally collapsed roof.
A CNN crew on the ground saw rescuers standing on cranes and lowering water hoses above the wreckage, while diggers removed rubble from the scene.
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.
“The moment the rocket hit, there was a shift change. Hopefully there will be no more casualties,” Filatov told reporters at the hospital site.
“It’s a miracle that the rocket hit just as the doctors shifted.” He added that there were outpatient consultations when the attack took place.
The clinic is used to treat the mentally ill and also houses an inpatient treatment center, according to the mayor.
kyiv and its Western allies have fiercely condemned the Kremlin attack on central Ukraine, calling for accountability for the Russian strikes.
France called them “war crimes” which “cannot go unpunished”, according to a press release from the French Foreign Ministry.
Missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions “have once again deliberately targeted civilian sites”, the ministry said, “in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday: “Russian terrorists once again confirm their status as fighters against everything humane and honest.”
“The consequences of the bombings are being eliminated and the victims are being rescued. All necessary services are involved,” he added.