Russia attacked a hospital in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine early Saturday, killing nine people and injuring at least 19 others, Ukrainian and United Nations officials said.
Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said "loitering munitions" — or suicide drones — hit the Saint Panteleimon Clinical Hospital in two attacks 45 minutes apart.
"Most of the fatalities occurred during the second strike, which hit as first responders arrived at the site and patients attempted to evacuate," she said.
Sumy City Council said 22 people sought medical help and 20 were listed as injured in the drone attacks, which it said damaged nine high-rise buildings in addition to the hospital.
By late Saturday, its website said 14 people were in hospital, six of them in a serious condition.
Bell said she had been in Sumy last week following up on a deadly September 19 attack on a geriatric center in which at least one civilian had been killed and 13 injured. That attack was similar to an August 13 attack on another hospital complex in the city.
"Medical facilities are protected under international humanitarian law and are entitled to special protection. They must not be the object of attack," she said, adding that 33 civilians had been killed and 132 injured in Sumy city and the surrounding region since August 6.
'Peace through force' is only way, says Zelenskyy
Ukrainian prosecutors said that at the time of the Saturday morning attacks 86 patients and 38 staff members were in the hospital.
"The first attack killed one person and damaged the ceilings of several floors of the hospital," Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said on Facebook that nine people were killed, including an employee of the national police, and 20 others were injured.
"Everyone in the world who talks about this war should pay attention to where Russia is hitting. They are fighting hospitals, civilian objects and people's lives," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram. "Only force can force Russia to peace. Peace through force is the only right way."
Judge killed in Kharkiv attack
Southeast of Sumy, two Russian attacks in Ukraine's Kharkiv region killed four people Saturday, including a Supreme Court judge who was delivering aid to residents in a civilian car, Ukrainian officials said.
Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said an air attack killed three people and injured at least three others in the village of Slatyne, which lies about 25 kilometers north of the city of Kharkiv, the regional capital. Local official Vyacheslav Zadorenko said Russian forces had used KAB-guided aerial bombs.
"The enemy hit civilian infrastructure, damaged educational institutions, shops," Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app. "People were outside at the time."
Some 25 kilometers farther north, in the village of Kozacha Lopan, an attack by a Russian drone killed the 61-year-old judge and injured three women who were in the car he was driving, the regional prosecutor's office said.
Ukraine's Supreme Court identified the judge as Leonid Loboyko.
Reuters could not immediately verify the details of the attacks.
