Russian strike on Kharkiv hospital injures at least 73 as energy sites come under attack

At least 73 people were injured when Russia struck a hospital in Kharkiv on Monday night, Ukrainian officials said, as attacks on energy infrastructure across several regions disrupted electricity supplies. The bombardment came a day after a Russian strike on an aid distribution centre killed at least 31 people.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that the hospital had been hit directly and that its cardiology department was damaged while patients were receiving treatment. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov described extensive damage to the facility in a Telegram post, saying more than 1,000 windows had been shattered.

Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight. He identified electricity generation facilities and substations as the main targets, listing the affected regions as Odesa, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv and Rivne.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had attacked electricity facilities in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv. It said those sites provided electricity to Ukraine’s armed forces and military factories. In Zhytomyr, Governor Vitalii Bunechko reported that more than 180,000 people were without electricity on Tuesday morning following the attacks. Scheduled outages were also introduced in Odesa.

Ukraine also carried out a drone attack on an oil refinery in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, according to regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev. He said the attack started a fire at the facility and injured two employees.

The attacks coincided with intensified US efforts to bring the war to an end. Officials from the United States, Russia and Ukraine are due to meet in Abu Dhabi next week. In a post on X late Monday, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said the agenda would include security arrangements after the war, reducing tensions, humanitarian work and further steps towards peace.

Witkoff said US negotiators would also hold discussions in Brussels this week with representatives of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO. Those meetings would address security guarantees for Ukraine, Europe’s security arrangements after the war and economic opportunities to help Ukraine rebuild.

Tuesday’s US midterm elections were also drawing attention in Ukraine. Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said they were arguably among the most consequential elections for Ukrainians in recent years. She said there had been no significant military aid packages for Ukraine since the Trump administration took office and Republicans gained control of both congressional chambers, compared with $60bn in military aid during the early years of the war under Biden. Europe had largely covered the shortfall, she said, while restoring US aid had remained a leading priority for Zelenskyy for more than six months.