A wave of Russian drone strikes brought “pure terror” to Ukraine overnight into Saturday, destroying a maternity hospital and leaving four dead and more than a dozen others wounded.
Moscow launched over 270 drones at targets across Ukraine and pounded civilian infrastructure primarily in the city of Odesa, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
Odesa, a southern port city, was swarmed by over 60 drones, and a child was among those injured in the strikes, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said.
“There was no military purpose whatsoever – this was pure terror against ordinary civilian life. … Each such strike proves that Russia does not want to end the war,” Zelensky said about the conflict that has now raged for over four years.
The roof of the maternity hospital was blown apart by the blast, along with connecting structures between two floors and multiple wards.
Medics were able to save 22 newborn babies, including twins on ventillator support along with 32 other patients who were evacuated from the Odesa hospital into a shelter, the hospital’s chief doctor Ihor Shpak said.
Two were killed, and at least 13 wounded in the strikes on Odesa, military administration chief Sergiy Lysak said.
Images posted by Zelensky on Telegram show Ukrainian firefighters trying to extinguish blazes in bombed-out residential buildings surrounded by rubble and debris from broken windows.
A Russian strike on Ukrainian gas production facilities killed a 55-year-old energy worker, energy company Naftogaz said.
A 28-year-old man was also killed in a Russian strike on a residential building in the city of Kryvyi Rih.
With Post Wires.
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