{"id":6316,"date":"2023-08-06T20:23:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-06T15:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=6316"},"modified":"2023-08-06T20:52:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T15:52:58","slug":"russia-strikes-ukraine-blood-centre-aeronautics-group-zelensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/news\/russia-strikes-ukraine-blood-centre-aeronautics-group-zelensky\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia strikes Ukraine blood centre, aeronautics group: Zelensky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moscow escalated its attacks in Ukraine on Saturday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing a deadly strike on a blood transfusion centre as a “war crime”.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A separate strike struck a key factory, both attacks coming just hours after Kyiv hit a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attacks were the latest since Moscow exited a deal last month that had ensured Ukrainian grain exports despite the ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian forces struck the blood transfusion centre in the Kharkiv region of northeast Ukraine, Zelensky said, adding that “dead and wounded are reported”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A “guided air bomb” hit the centre in Kupiansk, a city a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border, said Zelensky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Rescuers are extinguishing the fire,” he wrote on social media, adding: “This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike came shortly after Zelensky said Russian missiles had hit a facility of the Ukrainian aeronautics group Motor Sich, a maker of plane and helicopter engines and other components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is one of several companies requisitioned by the government since Moscow’s invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strikes also hit the region of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, around 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Kyiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region, home to a major Ukrainian airbase, has been regularly targeted by Russian strikes in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his evening address, Zelensky remained defiant, saying that “no matter how many such Russian attacks there are, they will still do nothing for the enemy”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Attack on fuel tanker –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier Saturday, Ukraine claimed it “blew up” a Russian tanker, the “SIG”, that was transporting fuel for Russian troops, a Ukrainian security source told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tanker was hit at around 11:20 pm (2020 GMT) on Friday south of the Kerch Strait, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ship was holed at the waterline in the area of the engine room but was still afloat, the agency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a video obtained by AFP purporting to show the attack, a vessel is seen approaching a large ship before the connection cuts off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ukrainian source said the “successful special operation”, which involved a naval drone and explosives, was carried out jointly with the navy in Ukrainian territorial waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SIG oil and chemical tanker is under US sanctions for supplying jet fuel to Russian forces in Syria, who are supporting President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moscow escalated its attacks in Ukraine on Saturday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing a deadly strike on a blood transfusion centre as a “war crime”. A separate strike struck a key factory, both attacks coming just hours after Kyiv hit a Russian tanker in the Kerch Strait. The attacks were the latest since Moscow exited […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2,2621,2622,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-russia","category-russia-asia","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}