Russian strikes on a medical center kill 7 people in the Ukrainian city of Sumy

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Two consecutive Russian attacks on a medical center in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed at least seven people on Saturday morning, local officials said.

According to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, the first strike killed one person. Russia attacked again, he said, while patients and staff were evacuating.

Local officials in Sumy said the attack used Shahed drones. As well as the seven people who died, 12 others were seriously wounded.

Sumy lies some 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 69 of 73 Russian drones launched overnight at the country, as well as two of the four missiles. City authorities in Kyiv said around 15 drones had been shot down over the Ukrainian capital and its outskirts.

In Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that air defenses overnight had shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region and one over the Kursk region, both areas bordering Ukraine.

The Associated Press