Ukraine said on Thursday it had shot down all 36 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks which it said probably targeted critical infrastructure and military facilities, the Ukrainian government announced on Friday morning, May 26.
Ukraine shot down 10 missiles and over 20 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks on the capital Kyiv, the southern city of Dnipro and eastern regions, .
Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy‘s office said in a statement that a fire had broken out on the outskirts of the northeastern city of Kharkiv after an oil depot was hit twice, and that equipment for pumping oil products had been damaged.
‘At least one person was killed and 15 wounded in a Russian missile strike on a clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday’, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. TOI reports.
He denounced the attack as a crime against humanity, and the Ukrainian Defence Ministry called it a serious war crime under the Geneva Conventions, which set out how soldiers and civilians should be treated in war.
Video footage showed a devastated building with smoke pouring out of it and rescue workers looking on.
Much of the upper floor of what appeared to be a three-storey building had been badly damaged, as had cars parked nearby.
‘Another (Russian) missile attack, another crime against humanity,’ Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter.
Ahead of an imminent counter offensive by Ukraine, Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks mainly attacking logistics and infrastructure facilities.
The Ukrainian airforce said in a statement it had shot down 10 missiles fired from the Caspian Sea, 23 Iranian-made Shahed drones and two reconnaissance drones during the overnight attacks.
It said a total of 17 missiles and 31 drones had been launched in the attacks, which started at around 10:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Thursday and continued until 5:00 a.m. on Friday.
Several drones and several missiles hit targets in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, officials said.
‘It was a very difficult night. It was loud – the enemy launched a mass attack on the region with missiles and drones,’ Serhiy Lysak, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, said on the Telegram messaging app. ‘Dnipro has suffered.’
Lysak said several houses, cars, and private companies, including a transport company and a gas station, had been damaged. A worker at the gas station was hurt.
The governor of the Kharkiv region also reported damage to several private houses and industrial facilities.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine 15 months ago, has launched hundreds of missile attacks since last October, seeking to destroy critical infrastructure and power facilities.
