KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian missile strike hit a hospital complex in central Ukraine on Friday morning, killing at least one person and injuring nearly two dozen others, including two children, Ukrainian officials said.
As rescue workers raced to pull survivors from the rubble and firefighters battled to contain the blaze caused by the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike on the medical facility in the city of Dnipro an “inhuman” act of barbarism.
Serhii Lysak, the head of the region’s military administration, said a 69-year-old man was killed and at least 21 people were being treated for injuries.
The strike took place on the campus of a medical facility that includes a mental health hospital and veterinary clinic, Ukrainian officials said. A three-story building at the complex was leveled and other buildings suffered extensive damage, they said.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, posted graphic videos of bloodied victims being pulled from the rubble. The attack on a medical facility, he said, was further evidence that “Russia is at war with the civilian population.”
He said that the injured included two boys, aged 3 and 6, and that four people remained missing several hours after the strike.
The central Ukrainian city of Dnipro is a hub for Ukrainian soldiers wounded in battle, usually a first stop before they are transported to other hospitals around the country. It was not clear if any Ukrainian soldiers were being treated at the facility that was hit on Friday or were injured in the attack.
Mr. Zelensky called the strike a “crime.”
“There can be no military purpose in this,” he said in a statement. He shared a video that showed black smoke billowing out of one building, which had its roof entirely shorn off.
His wife, Olena Zelenska, also denounced the attack and shared video of a destroyed building in flames.
Ukrainian medical facilities and civilian objects are again under attack. A terrible level of cynicism to hit a psychological dispensary in the Dnipropetrovs’k region with missiles. There are killed and wounded. My condolences to all those who suffered from this terrorist attack. pic.twitter.com/xTVgTMcu8b
— Олена Зеленська (@ZelenskaUA) May 26, 2023
The missile strike came just hours after yet another night of Russian aerial bombardments, which Ukraine’s military said involved 17 missiles and 31 attack drones aimed at targets across the country. Ukraine’s Air Force said on Friday morning that it destroyed 10 cruise missiles and 23 attack drones.
At least five of the cruise missiles and six of the attack drones were shot down over the Dnipro region.
“It was a really difficult night,” Mr. Lysak said. At least two homes, two private enterprises and a gas station were all damaged as result of the attack, he said. An employee at a gas station was injured, Mr. Lysak said, but no other casualties were reported from the overnight strikes.
