President Vladimir Putin of Russia bombed a blood bank in Ukraine last night allegedly in revenge for drone strikes on his warships in the Black Sea. President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the deadly strike on a blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine as a ‘war crime’ as Moscow escalated its attacks in the war-torn country.
A separate strike struck a key factory, both attacks coming just hours after Kyiv hit a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait. The attacks were the latest since Moscow exited a deal last month that had ensured Ukrainian grain exports despite the ongoing conflict.
A ‘guided air bomb’ hit the centre in Kupiansk, a city a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border, Zelensky said. ‘Rescuers are extinguishing the fire,’ he wrote on social media, adding: ‘This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression.’ The strike came shortly after Zelensky said Russian missiles had hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, a maker of plane and helicopter engines and other components.
