Russian strikes kill three in east Ukraine; 8 hurt

Three people were killed and eight were wounded in overnight Russian missile attacks and shelling in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, Ukrainian officials said yesterday. Missiles hit a hospital in the Donetsk town of Selydove and a coal mine, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on the Telegram messaging service. “Two buildings of the hospital were damaged, six civilians were injured. There may be victims under the rubble, search operations continue,” Klymenko said. The Ukrainian prosecutors’ office later said one person was killed in the attack, presumably with S-300 missiles. Klymenko said one worker was killed in the attack on the coal mine. “Four buildings, 19 vehicles and a power line were damaged. 39 miners were trapped underground. As of now, all miners have been brought to the surface,” he said. In Kharkiv, one person was killed in Russian shelling, the region’s governor, Oleh Synehubov, said. Meanwhile, EU chief Charles Michel and Germany’s defence minister arrived in Kyiv yesterday, becoming the latest officials to throw their weight behind Ukraine, making surprise visits on the 10th anniversary of the historic Maidan protests. The visits come in the wake of a disappointing Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south and east of the country that Kyiv launched this summer after building up stockpiles of Western weapons.londonGBDESK//