This handout photograph taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service on 26 March 2025 shows firefighters putting out a fire following a drone strike in Kharkiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Handout / Ukraine's State Emergency Service / AFP
Russian drones struck a military hospital, shopping centre, apartment blocks and other targets in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, on Saturday (local time), killing two people and injuring at least 25, local officials and the Ukrainian military said.
"According to preliminary information, there were injuries among the servicemen undergoing treatment in the medical centre," the military's General Staff said on the Telegram messaging app.
It denounced the "deliberate, targeted shelling" of the facility which it said "added to the long list of vile and cynical crimes committed by the Russians since the beginning of the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine".
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said one of the dead had been pulled out from under rubble.
He put the overall number of injured at 27.
A man stands next to an explosion hole at the site of a drone strike in Kharkiv on 26 March 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Sergey Bobok / AFP
Terekhov said an office building was also among the targets, with one drone triggering a fire.
Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, said 25 people were hurt, including a 15-year-old girl who is in serious condition.
Prosecutors, quoted by public broadcaster Suspilne, put the number of injured at 30. Suspilne posted photos of rescue teams in protective equipment sifting through rubble as well as piles of twisted metal and construction materials outside buildings.
Kharkiv, located in northeastern Ukraine, resisted capture in the early weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion.
But as Russian forces focused their attention on capturing large swathes of eastern Ukraine, the city has been a frequent target of air attacks.
-Reuters
