Russian drone strike hits medical facility, other targets in Kharkiv, officials say

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(Reuters) -Russian drones struck a medical facility and other targets late on Friday in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, wounding at least seven people, local officials said.

Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said nine Russian drones had attacked civilian areas in three central districts of the city, a frequent target of Russian attacks in the three-year-old war.

Seven people were injured, he said, and more than 50 people were evacuated from the medical facility as emergency crews brought under control a fire triggered by the strike.

Dozens of buildings were damaged, Syniehubov added, with windows shattered in an apartment building, a car dealership and a hypermarket.

“World leaders speak of peace, but Russia’s actions make its intentions clear,” Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, wrote on X after the strike. “It does not negotiate; it destroys.”

Russia has denied targeting civilians but regularly attacks towns and cities far behind the front line of its invasion.

In the Black Sea region of Odesa, another frequent Russian target in southern Ukraine, a drone attack killed one person and wounded three others.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Sandra Maler and David Evans)