Russian drones hit a medical facility and other targets in eastern Ukraine Friday night – an attack that comes hours after a heated Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnky.
The drones targeted civilian areas in three districts within Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and a frequent target of Russian attacks throughout the three-year-long war, according to Reuters.
At least five people were injured in the Russian military attacks, which were carried out by eight drones, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said in a Telegram post.
The attacks forced more than 50 people to evacuate from the medical center and sparked a fire in the city, the governor added.
Dozens of other civilian buildings were also damaged by the airstrikes.
A separate drone attack in the southern port city of Odesa, near the Black Sea, triggered fires in a private and a business, leaving one person dead and another injured, according to Reuters.
Russia has ramped up drone attacks on Ukraine as the Trump administration works toward reaching a critical deal on mineral rights with the war-torn nation.
Earlier this week, Russia pummeled Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, which is more than 300 miles away from the front lines of the conflict, with a record 267 drones as the US and Ukrainian governments appeared close to a deal on mineral rights.
The mineral-rights deal, which the Trump administration views as a key step towards a cease-fire agreement, did not get signed as expected Friday after Zelensky and his team were kicked out of the White House following an Oval Office dispute with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Trump charged that his Ukrainian counterpart “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office” by engaging in the shouting match.
The president later told reporters that it appeared to him during the meeting that Zelensky didn’t want peace but rather to “fight, fight, fight” with Russia.
