Russian strikes kill 4 in Kramatorsk, hit Kyiv hospital operating room

Russian strikes killed at least 4 people and injured 6 in Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine near the front line, authorities said on Monday. Three of the dead were employees of Kramatorskteploenergo, a combined heat and power plant, Ukraine's energy ministry said on Telegram.

Russian forces struck the city three times on Monday, said Vadym Filashkin, head of the region's military administration, who described the toll with evident sorrow. One of the strikes specifically targeted employees of a heating company, he said. Earlier in the day, three glide bombs hit a residential neighbourhood, damaging four apartment blocks, according to a social media report cited by ERT News. A fourth victim was killed in a separate drone strike, Filashkin said, adding that 15 residential buildings, two educational facilities and administrative buildings were damaged in total.

In Kyiv, a separate Russian air strike hit the Strazhesko Institute of the National Academy of Medical Sciences. "The Russians bombed a hospital again," Ukraine's Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi said, adding that the strike destroyed the operating theatre and injured one patient.

The strike hit the hospital's sixth floor, where the operating room is located; a previous strike last year had hit the fourth floor, Koretskyi said. Photographs he released showed a hospital bed covered in debris, a floor littered with broken tiles, and metal fixtures hanging from the ceiling.

The institute treats patients with heart disease from across Ukraine, performing surgeries and helping people recover after heart attacks, Koretskyi said. "Thank you to the doctors and staff who keep working and saving lives," he said.

Images released alongside the reports showed damaged apartment buildings in Kramatorsk and debris scattered through the hospital's operating room in Kyiv.