Ukraine war briefing: Russian attacks on hospital in Sumy, Ukraine, kill 10, Kiev says | Ukraine

At least ten people were killed in two consecutive Russian attacks on a hospital in Sumy. The initial shelling killed one and damaged several floors of the building, but Russian forces struck again while the hospital’s patients were being evacuated, authorities said. At least 22 people were reportedly injured in the attacks. Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, said “loitering munitions” – or suicide drones – hit Saint Panteleimon Clinical Hospital in two attacks 45 minutes apart. “Most of the deaths occurred during the second attack as first responders arrived on scene and patients attempted to evacuate,” she said. The city of Sumy is 32 km (20 miles) from the Russian border.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Sumy attack a day after meeting Donald Trump in New York. “Everyone in the world who talks about this war must pay attention to what Russia has in its sights,” Zelensky wrote on force. Peace through strength is the only right path.”

In addition to the 10 people killed on Saturday, at least seven other civilians were killed across Ukraine in the past 24 hours. authorities said. Four were killed in Kryvyi Rih after a Russian missile hit a five-story police administration building on Friday – authorities completed rescue operations there on Saturday. The four killed in Kryvyi Rih were three police officers. Meanwhile, dozens more were injured in further rocket and air strikes on residential areas in Kherson, Donetsk and Odessa oblasts.

Russia’s top diplomat warned on Saturday against “fighting for victory with a nuclear power”, He gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that was packed with condemnation of what Russia sees as Western machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere – including within the United Nations itself. Three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a change in his country’s nuclear doctrine, his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool to strategically “defeat” Moscow.

China’s foreign minister warned fellow leaders on Saturday about “expanding the battlefield” embroiled in the war and said the Beijing government remained committed to shuttle diplomacy and efforts to bring the conflict closer to an end. China, along with Brazil, has proposed new talks between Kiev and Moscow and this week rallied countries in the global south behind the plan. Zelensky rejected the efforts of China and Brazil and questioned why they proposed an alternative to his own peace formula.

Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News broadcast on Saturday that he received “very direct information” from Donald Trump that the former US president would support Ukraine in the war against Russia if he is re-elected in the November presidential election. Zelensky said: “I don’t know what will happen after the elections and who will be president… But I received very direct information from Donald Trump that he will be on our side, that he will support Ukraine.”

Two Russian attacks in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people on Saturday, including a Supreme Court judge The Ukrainian official said he was delivering aid to local residents in a civilian vehicle. Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said an airstrike killed three people and wounded at least three others in the village of Slatyne, about 25 km (15 miles) north of the city of Kharkiv – the regional capital.

Russia is ready to go to court over the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, A State Department spokesman said Saturday that Russia had filed “pre-trial complaints.” against Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. Maria Zakharova accused the West of trying to “sweep the matter under the carpet” and claimed that the explosions that ruptured the multi-billion dollar pipeline in September 2022 – seven months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – were “an outrageous one act of international terrorism”.

NATO members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will apply for EU funding to build a network of bunkers, barriers, distribution lines and military camps along their borders with Russia and Belarus, Estonian officials said. The three Baltic states first announced the plan for a “Baltic Defense Line” in January. In May, Poland announced a similar project called “Eastern Shield” aimed at strengthening its borders with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.

North Korea, accused of illegal arms sales to Russia, said on Sunday that $8 billion in US military aid to Ukraine was “an incredible mistake”. and play with fire against the nuclear superpower Russia. “The United States and the West should not ignore or underestimate Russia’s serious warning,” Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. Vladimir Putin has warned that he could use nuclear weapons if Russia were hit by missiles. According to the US, North Korea has shipped at least 16,500 weapons containers to Russia since September last year and Russia has fired missiles from these shipments against Ukraine.