At least 20 people have been killed after Russia launched a massive missile attack against cities across Ukraine, according to officials.
In the capital, Kyiv, at least seven people were killed in a rare daytime attack. The city’s mayor said a children’s hospital was hit by the missile strike and was being evacuated.
The head of the military administration in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih said at least 10 people had been killed there, with three more killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is due to visit Poland, said that Russia had fired some 40 missiles at targets across the country.
“Different cities: Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk. More than 40 missiles of various types. Residential buildings, infrastructure and a children’s hospital were damaged,” Mr Zelensky said.
Plumes of smoke could be seen across the capital Kyiv, while video posted on social media showed the destruction inside and outside of the Okhmadyt children’s hospital.
Mr Zelensky said in a social media post that people were trapped under the rubble of the hospital.
“Right now, everyone is helping to clear the rubble – doctors and ordinary people,” the president wrote.
Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said cancer and intensive care wards had been hit in the blast. Photos from the scene showed young children – some with IV drips – sitting outside the hospital as it was evacuated.
Vitaliy Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, told the Reuters news agency from the hospital that the bombardment was “one of the the worst attacks” on the capital since the start of the war.
He said there had been “fatalities” in the attack on the hospital and said the exact number was being clarified.
Elsewhere, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration in Kryvy Rih, posted on the Telegram messaging app that at least 10 people were killed and 31 wounded following the attack on the city. Of those, he said 10 were seriously injured.
Kryvy Rih is Mr Zelensky’s home town and has been repeatedly attacked by Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Dnipro regional head Sergiy Lysak said a high-rise building and a business had been hit in Dnipro city and a number of people had been wounded.
Three people were killed in Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have taken control of a number of villages in recent weeks.
The Russian bombardment comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow for a two-day state visit and is due to hold talks on Monday with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
Moscow has so far not commented on the attacks but has previously insisted its military does not target civilian infrastructure.
The UN’s human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has said civilian casualties have been mounting in recent months, as Russia renewed its air campaign. A recent report said May was the deadliest month for civilian deaths in almost a year.
President Zelensky has spent months appealing to Western allies to supply additional air defence systems.
BBC
