At least two people were killed and 18 more were injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine after U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to a partial cease-fire. File Photo by Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/EPA-EFE
March 19 (UPI) — At least two people were killed and 18 injured overnight in Russian drone and artillery strikes on Ukraine, including two hospitals, despite U.S. President Donald Trump claiming he had secured an “immediate cease-fire” on all energy and infrastructure targets in his call with President Vladimir Putin.
One person was killed and three were injured in Sumy province late Tuesday after Russian artillery bombarded the town of Uhroidy, five miles west of the border with Russia’s Belgorod province, destroying a two-story apartment building and damaging a low-pressure gas pipeline, according to an update on social media by the Sumy Military Administration.
Drones also struck the hospital in nearby Krasnopillia and a hospital in the regional capital, Sumy.
The State Emergency Service said there were no casualties in either attack but patients had been evacuated and that that blast in Sumy also damaged a children’s medical facility.
Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on his Telegram account that a 45-year-old woman had been killed and four people injured in the east of the province when the public utility vehicle they were traveling in was struck by a so-called “loitering drone” on a highway between Kupiansk and Kindrashivka.
Seven people were injured in the Kherson region in attacks that damaged four apartment buildings and more than two dozen houses, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said in a social media post.
The military administration for the Kyiv capital region said on its Telegram account that a 60-year-old man was injured in Bucha, north of Kyiv, during Russian strikes targeting three settlements that damaged or partially destroyed nine houses.
Power infrastructure was also hit in Dnipro province early Wednesday with Russian drones striking the Ukrainian Railways’ power grid, causing partial outages. No trains were disrupted or canceled.
In all, 12 of Ukraine’s 24 provinces were attacked just hours after the Kremlin said he had issued orders to Russian forces to cease fire following his phone call with Trump on Tuesday morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest attacks on civilian infrastructure were Putin rejecting the cease-fire and in a post on social media called for more sanctions on Moscow and more aid for Ukraine.
“It is these kinds of night-time attacks by Russia that are destroying our energy, our infrastructure, and the normal lives of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night was no exception shows that we must continue to pressure Russia for the sake of peace.
“Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any of Putin’s attempts to drag out the war,” said Zelensky.
