Rescue workers tackle fires at the site of a Russian drone strike on Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, 29 March 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / SERGEY KOZLOV

Two people were killed and at least 35 were injured, including five children, in a Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv on Saturday night, according to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

The “deliberate” attack primarily targeted a military hospital in the city, injuring Ukrainian troops currently undergoing treatment, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) said in a statement.

The AFU accused Russia of committing a “war crime” that would be added “to the long list of despicable and cynical crimes committed by the Russians since the beginning of their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine”, and pledged to transfer all relevant evidence to “international criminal justice bodies”.

The attack damaged nearby apartment buildings, as well as residential areas in other districts of the city, Terekhov said, adding that seven Iranian-made Shahed drones, which Russia has repeatedly used for large-scale strikes on Ukrainian cities throughout the war, were used in the strike.

The Russian Defence Ministry has not yet commented on the attack.

The deadly strikes starkly contrast with recent US-led efforts to end the three-year war in Ukraine. On Tuesday, following US-brokered talks in Riyadh, Moscow and Kyiv both pledged to respect an energy infrastructure ceasefire.

Since then, however, both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the agreement, most recently after the Sudzha gas metering station, in the Ukrainian-controlled pocket of Russia’s Kursk region, came under attack for the second time in a week on Friday.