Moscow [Russia], October 15: Russian forces have struck a hospital and a United Nations convoy in Ukraine, officials say, in attacks likely to bolster President Volodymyr Zelensky's pitch for long-range Tomahawk missiles when he meets his United States counterpart later this week.
Officials said on Tuesday that overnight attacks involving drones and glide bombs struck a hospital in Kharkiv, injuring 57 people and forcing the evacuation of 50 patients.
Meanwhile, Russian forces attacked a UN convoy that was delivering aid to the front-line town of Bilozerka in the partially occupied southern region of Kherson, UN and Ukrainian officials said. No casualties were reported.
The attacks in Kharkiv and Kherson - condemned, respectively, by Zelensky as a "terrorist" attack and by the UN as a violation of international law - come days before a scheduled meeting between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on Friday when the pair is expected to discuss the potential supply of long-range, precision-strike Tomahawk missiles to Kiev to allow it to hit back at Moscow.
Trump has suggested in recent days that he was considering providing Kiev with Tomahawks, which would be the longest-range missiles in Ukraine's arsenal and could allow it to accurately strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow.
Washington had previously ruled out supplying Ukraine with the cruise missiles, which the Kremlin has warned could have serious consequences and would entail direct US involvement in the conflict.
The overnight attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, hit the city's main hospital, Zelensky said in a post on X.
He described the strikes as an "utterly terrorist, cynical attack on a place where lives are saved".
He said the main targets of the overnight raids across the country had once again been energy facilities and power facilities in the Kherson and Sumy regions were hit. Meanwhile, in Kherson, the UN said its convoy of four vehicles, clearly marked with World Food Programme branding, came under attack from Russian drones and artillery while delivering aid.
Two trucks were damaged in the strike although no one was injured, said the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Matthias Schmale.
Source: Qatar Tribune