Ukraine: One dead after Russian attack on clinic in Dnipro, says Zelensky

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that at least one person was killed and 15 others were wounded after Russia fired a missile attack on a psychiatric clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a crime against humanity. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry meanwhile denounced the attack as a serious war crime under the Geneva Conventions on International Humanitarian Law.

Video footage showed a destroyed building with smoke billowing out as rescue workers worked nearby. Much of the top floor of what appeared to be a three-storey building was badly damaged, as were cars parked nearby.

“Another (Russian) missile attack, another crime against humanity,” Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

“The buildings of a psychiatric clinic and a veterinary clinic have been destroyed in the city of Dnipro. To date, one person has died and 15 are injured,” he said.

Russia has repeatedly denied allegations that its troops committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian officials said they had shot down 10 missiles and more than 20 drones launched by Russia in nighttime attacks on the capital Kiev, the city of Dnipro and regions in the east of the country.

Reuters was unable to verify this information.

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine 15 months ago, had no immediate comment on the alleged airstrikes. He said that Ukraine attacked two regions of southern Russia with a rocket and a drone.

(Reporting by Olena Harmsch; French edition edited by Lina Golovnya, Blandine Heinault)