Ukraine accuses Russia of war crime for ‘deliberate’ strike on hospital
Sofiia Bobok/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Ukraine has accused Russia of committing a war crime after a Russian drone struck a military hospital in Kharkiv overnight.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the strikes were a “deliberate, targeted striking” of the hospital and that it appeared soldiers being treated there were injured. It said the medical center and nearby residential buildings were damaged as a result of a “defeat of” a Russian Shahed drone.
Photos from the scene appear to show damage to the hospital, with an entrance way demolished.
Russian drones also hit apartment blocks and a shopping mall in the center of Ukraine’s second largest city, killing at least two people and wounding 25, according to Kharkiv’s governor.
“War crimes have no statute of limitations. The relevant evidence will be transferred to the bodies of international criminal justice,” the General Staff wrote in a statement on the hospital attack.
Ukrainian cites are bombed by dozens of Russian drones every night, and this weekend has seen a particularly intense wave of attacks in civilian areas of major cities. Dnipro in southeast Ukraine suffered on Friday night heavy strikes that started major fires.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said over the past week Russia had launched over 1,000 drones, nine missiles and over 1,300 guided aerial bombs, with most of Ukraine’s regions coming under attack. He said Ukraine had shot down a “significant number” of the drones and missiles.
“Russia is dragging out the war,” Zelenskyy wrote in a statement on X, saying Ukraine had shared information on Russia’s strikes with its allies and that it expects a “response from the United States, Europe and all our allies to this terror against our people.”
Russia has also intensified its ground offensive operations in recent days amid, according to Ukraine’s military, amid the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to end the war.
Ukraine’s General Staff as well as Ukrainian military analysts report in the past few days Russia has launched some of the largest number of ground assaults since the start of the year.
“The number of enemy assaults has exceeded 200 times per day for the last three days,” Deep State, a blog account that tracks the war and is close to Ukraine’s military, wrote Friday. This is the highest three-day intensity of the year.”
It follows warnings this week by Zelenskyy that Russia is preparing to launch a major spring offensive, even as it tries to drag out negotiations with the Trump administration.
The Russian attacks are focused most of all in eastern Ukraine, in the direction of Pokrovsk, an important defensive hub that Russia has been trying to seize for more than 6 months.
Russian forces had scaled back their attacks in recent weeks in part due to poor ground conditions and apparently also worn down by extremely heavy losses. But it appears they are now renewing their offensive operations.
Ukrainian and western officials warned that President Vladimir Putin of Russia will try to use protracted negotiations as an opportunity to also advance on the battlefield, hoping to crack Ukraine’s defenses as the Trump administration weakens western support for Kyiv.
Alex Ellinghausen / Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Ukrainian intelligence and open-source data show Russian President Vladimir Putin does not “plan to end the war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily evening address Monday.
“There is currently no indication that they are seriously considering peace or diplomacy,” he added. “On the contrary, there is ample evidence that they are preparing new offensive operations.”
The address came after an overnight exchange of long-range cross-border drone attacks between Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 364 “air attack vehicles” — nine cruise missiles and 355 attack drones — in the latest bombardment.
All missiles and 288 drones were shot down or neutralized in flight, Ukraine’s air force said. Impacts were reported in five regions and falling debris in 10 regions, it added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed 128 Ukrainian drones over 12 regions from Sunday night into Monday morning.
Near-nightly cross-border strikes have become a prominent feature of Russia’s war on Ukraine, now more than three years old with little sign of an imminent ceasefire or peace deal. Recent months have seen the bombardments grow in size.
On Saturday night into Sunday, for example, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as its largest aerial attack of the war. The assault included 367 drones and missiles and killed at least 18 people, officials said.
The weekend attacks prompted Trump to rebuke both Putin and Zelenskyy on his social media platform on Monday.
“I’m not happy with what Putin is doing,” he wrote. “He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”
“Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does,” he continued.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia is “really grateful to the Americans and personally to President Trump for his assistance in organizing and launching this negotiation process. This is a very important achievement.”
However, Zelenskyy and his officials have cited Russia’s continued massed strikes as evidence that Moscow is not genuine in its public appeals for peace.
“Russia is counting on a prolonged war,” Zelenskyy remarked, when discussing the new intelligence that he said was analyzed in a meeting with his staff on Monday. “And on their part, this is a blatant disregard for all those around the world who seek peace and are trying to make diplomacy work.”
(RAFAH GOVERNORATE, Gaza) — Israel announced Saturday that its military has completed the establishment of a new security corridor in the Gaza Strip, effectively taking full control over the southern city of Rafah — which Israel had ordered evacuated — and cutting it off from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
“The IDF has now completed the takeover of the Morag axis that crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis and makes the entire area between the Philadelphi axis and Morag part of the Israeli security zone,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. “IDF activity will soon expand strongly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones.”
Over 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel ended the ceasefire on March 18. In total, nearly 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces issued evacuation orders for large swaths of war-torn Gaza, including parts of Khan Yunis and almost all of Rafah.
The IDF has been expanding its operations in Gaza since it ended the ceasefire in March, earlier this month saying it will capture extensive territories. On April 2, Katz said they will “seize large areas that will be annexed to the security zones of the State of Israel.”
Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces issued evacuation orders for large swaths of war-torn Gaza, including parts of Khan Yunis and almost all of Rafah.
This came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the establishment of the so-called Morag Corridor, describing it as “a second Philadelphi Corridor” that would further divide Gaza and increase pressure on Hamas to release the remaining Israeli hostages.
The so-called Philadelphi Corridor refers to a narrow strip of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt that has been under Israeli control since May 2024.
The IDF said Israeli troops were operating in some areas between Rafah and Khan Yunis where they had never operated previously and that the strategy behind establishing the new security corridor was to separate Hamas fighters in Rafah from Khan Yunis, spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said at a press briefing last week.
The IDF said on Saturday that it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled underground tunnel routes and Hamas terror infrastructure, and completed the encirclement of Rafah,” in the last week and a half.
In an address to Palestinians in Gaza following the completion of the Morag axis, Katz said the IDF is already continuing to expand its territory in Gaza.
“This is the last moment to remove Hamas and release all the hostages and bring about an end to the war – IDF activity will soon expand vigorously to additional locations throughout most of Gaza,” he said.
“In northern Gaza, residents are also evacuating in Beit Hanoun and other neighborhoods and the area is being taken, expanding the security zone and in the Netzarim Corridor. IDF activity will soon expand strongly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones,” Katz said.
Last week, the IDF said at a press briefing that the only thing that can halt the IDF’s advance in Gaza is the release of hostages.
Katz reiterated support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to forcibly expel Palestinians in Gaza and said they are working toward making it possible for Palestinians in Gaza to “voluntarily move to various countries around the world.”
In February, Trump departed from decades of U.S. foreign policy, announcing that the U.S. would “clean out” the Gaza Strip and rebuild it, saying Palestinians living there should leave — a statement that the United Nations and allies, including France and Germany, have called a violation of international law and said it amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Trump at one point threatened to withdraw aid to Egypt and Jordan if they didn’t agree to take in Palestinians, though less than 24 hours later, he said, “I don’t have to threaten that, I don’t think. I think we’re above that.”
Egypt and Jordan have both firmly opposed taking in forcibly displaced Palestinians.
Security Service of Ukraine / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump said he spoke to Russian President Putin on Wednesday, describing their call as “good” but “not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the leaders discussed Ukraine’s large-scale drone operation that targeted Russian military airfields on Sunday and “various other attacks” during their approximately 65-minute call.
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said.
With U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia peace talks still floundering despite another round of negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top officials are applying more pressure on Trump to increase the cost of what they see as Russian obfuscation.
Trump returned to office in January having vowed to end the war in 24 hours. But months of failed talks — with Kyiv and Moscow clearly still far apart on their peace demands — have left the president and his administration publicly frustrated.
Trump has threatened both — Ukraine with the withdrawal of all aid and Russia with more sanctions — with punishment if his peace-making efforts fail. Both Ukraine and Russia have sought to frame the other as the main impediment to a peace deal.
Ukraine aligned itself with Trump’s May appeal for a full 30-day ceasefire, a proposal Putin has refused. In the weeks since, Zelenskyy has pushed Trump to meet Russia’s obstinance with sanctions.
Following Monday’s talks — which lasted just over an hour — Kyiv embarked on a renewed push.
“I want to thank all Americans, all Europeans who support this approach of pressuring Russia into peace — it is extremely important,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday night, following the latest round of deadly Russian drone and missile attacks on his country — and after two headline-grabbing attacks by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet and the Kerch Strait Bridge.
“Putin does not change his behavior when he does not fear the consequences of his actions,” Zelenskyy added. “Russia must feel what war truly means. Russia must bear the losses from the war. They must really feel that continuing the war will have devastating consequences for them.”
The two sides did agree to further prisoner exchanges during the latest Istanbul talks. But both Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Andriy Yermak — the influential head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office — pushed back on the notion that the negotiations moved the needle toward a lasting ceasefire agreement.
Yermak said in a post to social media that he spoke with Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff about the talks, telling him, “Russia’s position remains unconstructive.”
“I emphasized that Russia is stalling and manipulating the negotiation process in an attempt to avoid American sanctions and has no genuine intention of ceasing hostilities,” Yermak said. “Only strong sanctions can compel Russia to engage in serious negotiations.
Sybiha said Russia “has not responded to our document outlining Ukraine’s vision for ending the war,” in a post on X summarizing Ukraine’s official conclusions from the second round of talks.
“Instead of responding to our constructive proposals in Istanbul, the Russian side passed a set of old ultimatums that do not move the situation any closer to true peace,” he said.
“This contradicts Russia’s previous promises, including to the United States, that it would put forward something realistic and doable this week in Istanbul,” Sybiha added, also calling for new U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Trump is also facing pressure at home. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham — long influential in advising the president’s foreign policy — is among those pushing a sanctions bill through the Senate that would slap 500% tariffs on any country that buys Moscow’s energy products.
On Sunday, following a visit to Kyiv with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Graham wrote on X, “Russia indiscriminately kills men, women and children. It’s time for the world to act decisively against Russia’s aggression by holding China and others accountable for buying cheap Russian oil that props up Putin’s war machine.”
The Kremlin urged patience. “It would be wrong to expect any immediate decisions or breakthroughs here,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday of the latest talks. “But work is ongoing. Certain agreements were reached in Istanbul, and they are important. Indeed, first and foremost, it is about people. These agreements will be implemented.”
But Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — gave a darker read on the negotiations. The talks, he wrote on Telegram, “are not meant to achieve a compromise peace based on some imaginary and unrealistic conditions invented by others, but rather to secure our swift victory and the complete destruction” of Zelenskyy’s government.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday that Tuesday’s explosion at the Kerch Strait Bridge caused no damage, after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed responsibility for the latest attack on the structure.
“Well, there was an explosion, nothing was damaged, the bridge is working, the Kyiv regime continues its attempts to attack the objects of peaceful infrastructure,” Peskov said at a briefing. “The Russian side takes appropriate precautions.”
The SBU said it attacked the bridge — which links occupied Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region and is a prominent symbol of Moscow’s control over the occupied peninsula — with underwater explosives early on Tuesday, in an operation that “lasted several months.”
The SBU claimed that the explosion “severely damaged” the “underwater supports of the piers.” The official account for the bridge said the structure was “temporarily closed” after the explosion.
The long-range strikes that have unsettled Trump continued. Ukraine’s air force reported 95 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, of which 61 were shot down or neutralized. Impacts were recorded in seven locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed seven Ukrainian drones overnight.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine issued a security alert Wednesday warning Americans about the increasing intensity of Russian attacks. The embassy urged U.S. citizens to “exercise appropriate caution” and be prepared to “shelter immediately” if an air alert is announced.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
