A Russian drone attack has damaged a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, leaving patients terrified and rushing to shelter their babies as windows shattered and shards of glass fell on to the beds.
Three women and three newborns suffered acute stress and received medical help, according to Kharkiv’s regional prosecutors.
Oleksandra Lavrynenko was at the hospital after just giving birth.
“We woke up and heard a very loud whistle. My husband and I got up and quickly went to our little one, and at that moment there was a hit and the windows shattered,” Ms Lavrynenko.
They rushed to shelter one-day-old Maksym underground.
“It was very scary, because I was so full of adrenaline that I probably forgot that I had stitches. Now I am slowly recovering from the shock,”
she said.
“It is very difficult and scary to give birth at this time,” she said, laying next to her son.
Emergency workers helped residents of the hospital following the strike.
(Reuters: Sofiia Gatilova)
Shards of glass littered the medical facility’s floors and beds and patients and staff prepared to evacuate.
Oleksandr Kondriatskyi, one of the doctors, said the attack damaged the side of the building where the delivery and surgery rooms were located.
“Everyone, both the staff and the women, suffered severe stress,” he said, adding that some of the patients only gave birth a couple days ago and had had surgery.
Russia has increased the intensity of aerial attacks in recent weeks, and carried out more missile and drone strikes across Ukraine.
The attack damaged medical equipment in the facility as well as causing some injuries. (Reutesr: Sofiia Gatilova)
It has frequently targeted Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, located in the north-east of the country, since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Nine people were injured in Kharkiv and an apartment building was also damaged in the attack.
One person died and at least five more were injured as a result of various Russian attacks over the past day in the surrounding region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
US envoy on Ukraine prepares for week-long visit
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said on Friday that its drones struck a Russian aviation plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region.
In a statement on the Telegram app, the military said that the overnight attack caused explosions and a fire at the aviation plant, and also explosions and smoke rising over the industrial zone at the other site were registered.
US special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, will arrive in Ukraine for a week-long visit next week.
Ukrainian media reported that Mr Kellogg will be in Kyiv on Monday and be there for the week.
US President Donald Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he would make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday, without elaborating.
Reuters/ABC