Russian Troops Attack Ukrainian Mental Hospital, Kharkiv Governor: This Is A War Crime Against Civilians

JAKARTA - Ukraine accused Russian troops of attacking a mental hospital near the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum on Friday in what regional governors called a brutal attack on civilians.

Kharkiv Region Governor By Synegubov said 330 people were in hospital at the time. Some of them have to use a wheelchair or are unable to move, while 73 people have been evacuated. The number of victims themselves is said to be still in the data collection.

"This is a war crime against civilians, a genocide against the Ukrainian nation," Synegubov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report in an area that has reported heavy fighting since Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russia denies targeting civilians in what it calls special operations to disarm and "wipe out the Nazis" of Ukraine.

The reported attack followed the bombing of a hospital in the southern city of Mariupol, in which Ukrainian officials said three people died on Wednesday, including a child. Russia said it would investigate the incident, but some officials dismissed reports of the attack as "fake news".

Synegubov further explained separately that Russian troops had shelled the residential area of Kharkiv, the main city in the region, 89 times in one day but there was no danger to civilians, after an institute containing a nuclear laboratory was attacked.

Separately, an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Ministry said on Thursday Russian planes bombed the institute in Kharkiv which is home to an experimental nuclear reactor.

"There is no threat to the civilian population yet," Synegubov said in a video speech.

Meanwhile, three air strikes on Friday morning in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least one person, the state emergency services said, adding the strikes were close to a kindergarten and an apartment building.

The attack comes amid preparations by the United States, along with Group of Seven countries and the European Union, to revoke Russia's "most favored country" status over its invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier, on Sunday Ukraine had warned that Russia was deploying troops to besiege Dnipro, home to about a million people before the invasion began.