Russia bombs bloodbank in retaliation for Ukrainian attack on oil tanker
A blood transfusion centre was targeted as Moscow unleashed a massive air strike on western Ukraine, following through on its promise to retaliate for a Ukrainian attack on a Russian tanker.
Russian and Ukrainian shelling across the country on Sunday killed at least six people, officials said.
Separately, Moscow's second-largest airport briefly suspended flights early on Sunday following a foiled drone attack near the Russian capital.
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A blood transfusion centre in Ukraine was hit in a massive Russian air strike in retaliation for an attack on an oil tanker. (Ukraine Defence Ministry) Supplied/Facebook
Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 70 attack drones and missiles, including cruise missiles from aircraft over the Caspian Sea and Iranian-made, Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a guided bomb had hit a blood transfusion centre in the area's Kupyan district on Saturday.
A fire broke out at the centre following the attack, he added.
"This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
"Defeating terrorists is a matter of honour for everyone who values life."
Zelenskyy said the facilities of aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich in the Zaporizhzhia region had also come under attack.
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In this image from video, a seaborne drone approaches a Russian tanker on the Black Sea last Friday before it exploded. AP
The Russian barrage came after a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian tanker in the Black Sea near Crimea late on Friday.
Ukraine also struck a major Russian port with drones earlier the same day.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned what she called a Ukrainian "terrorist attack" on a civilian vessel in the Kerch Strait.
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