Russia attacks geriatric centre, Ukraine's grid amid warnings of energy shortfall

By Anastasiia Malenko

KYIV (Reuters) -Russian forces hit a geriatric centre in the Ukrainian city of Sumy and targeted its energy sector in a new wave of airstrikes on Thursday, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said.

A U.N. monitoring body said attacks on the power grid probably violated humanitarian law while the International Energy Agency said in a report that Ukraine's electricity supply shortfall in the critical winter months could reach about a third of expected peak demand.

During a daytime strike on the northern city of Sumy a Russian guided bomb hit a five-storey building, housing about 211 elderly people, regional and military officials said.

One person was killed and 12 more wounded in the attack, the interior ministry said on the Telegram messenger. Rescuers helped disabled to leave the premises.

Images from the site shared alongside the post showed elderly patients evacuated from the damaged building lying on the ground on carpets and blankets waiting to be moved to a new place.

Overnight, Ukraine's air force said it had shot down all 42 drones and one of four missiles launched by Russia in the latest attacks in more than 2-1/2 years of war since Russia's full-scale invasion.

Russian forces have pummelled the energy system in the Sumy region in multiple strikes this week, reducing power in some areas and forcing authorities to use back-up power systems.

Ukraine's energy ministry said power cuts had been in force in 10 regions due to airstrikes and technological reasons.

In a sign of its concern, the European Union said a fuel power plant was being dismantled in Lithuania to be rebuilt in Ukraine, and that electricity exports would also be increased.

The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Russia's strikes on the energy grid posed risks to the water supply, sewage and sanitation, provision of heating and hot water, public health, education and the wider economy.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine’s civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law," it said in a report.

Kyiv says the targeting of its energy system is a war crime, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for four Russian officials and military officers for the bombing of civilian power infrastructure.

Moscow says power infrastructure is a legitimate military target and has dismissed the charges against its officials as irrelevant.

REPEATED ATTACKS

Moscow has repeatedly attacked the Sumy region, which borders Russia's Kursk region, area of a major Ukrainian incursion in which Kyiv says it seized over 100 settlements.

Three people were killed in shelling near Krasnopillia in the Sumy region on Wednesday evening and two were wounded in daytime shelling on Thursday that damaged a medical institution, local prosecutors said. Then later in the day, the Russian forces used bombs to launch another attack.

Russia has taken back two more villages in Kursk, a senior commander said on Thursday, adding that Russian forces were also advancing in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defences went into operation in nine Ukrainian regions overnight, the air force said, and the governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region said a missile had been shot down over his region.

Six people were wounded in Kupiansk in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, and a school and a kindergarten were among buildings damaged, the regional governor said.

An educational institution was also reported damaged in the Cherkasy region.

(Additonal reporting by Olena Harmash, Yuliia Dysa, Editing by Timothy Heritage)