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KYIV, Ukraine – An explosion far behind the front line shook Ukraine on Saturday, as a Russian missile destroyed part of a hospital complex and appeared to be attacking Ukrainian cities under the control of Russia, in an escalating, long-range aerial war.
An attack on a medical center in the central city of Dnipro killed at least two people, left three others missing and wounded at least 30, Ukrainian officials said. It destroyed a three-story building and damaged several others.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted to social media video buildings gutted, roofs and upper walls gone, belching smoke to the sky, calling it “another crime against humanity.”
Ukraine is expected to start a major counteroffensive soon – some analysts say it may have been in its initial phase – and both sides have stepped up attacks from a distance ahead of the clash on the ground. Kyiv forces increased the tempo and range of attacks into Russian-held territory, particularly on military depots, convoys and troop concentrations, and railways used by Russian forces.
On Friday, explosions were reported in the Russian-held southern city of Berdyansk, about 60 miles from the front, for the second time this week. Vladimir Rogov, the Russian occupation official in southern Ukraine, said several loud explosions had rocked Berdyansk overnight and that Russian air defenses had thwarted the Ukrainian attack, a claim he could not confirm.
The Ukrainian military did not comment on Berdyansk specifically, but said the air force “carried out five strikes targeting enemy personnel and equipment groups.” GeoConfirmed, one of the volunteer groups tracking battlefield movements in Ukraine, posted a picture on Twitter showed a large fire and said the impact has been recorded in Berdyansk, although it is not clear what hit.
On Friday night, there were two large explosions in another southern city under the control of Mariupol, about 40 miles from Berdyansk, near the Azovstal steelworks, according to Mariupol city government officials who fled before the Russian takeover. Russian occupation officials said the explosion was caused by a Ukrainian missile, which had recently been supplied by Britain, according to the Tass state news agency.
The hospital attack in Dnipro on Friday morning followed one of Russia’s frequent overnight barrages aimed at towns and infrastructure far from the battlefield, with missiles and drones fired in bunches to try to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses. Ukraine’s military said it had destroyed 10 of 17 missiles launched, and 23 of 31 attack drones.
“Only an evil country can fight clinics,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Twitter. “There is no military purpose in this. It is pure terror.”
Russia’s defense ministry told state media it had struck a Ukrainian ammunition depot.
The city of Dnipro is a hub for Ukrainian soldiers wounded in battle, usually the first stop before being transported to hospitals in other parts of the country. It was unclear whether any Ukrainian soldiers were being treated at the facility on Friday.
“It was a very difficult night,” said Serhii Lysak, head of the Dnipro regional government. One of the dead, he said, was a 69-year-old man who was “just passing by” when the hospital was hit.
Since the start of President Vladimir V. Putin’s full-scale invasion 15 months ago, Russia has used its advantage in weaponry to bomb civilian targets across Ukraine, such as hospitals, schools and power plants, which it considers a war crime. First, ranged attacks are all one-sided and generally unimpeded.
But as the Ukrainian military has gained experience and acquired a variety of Western weapons, it has become more adept at intercepting such Russian attacks, and better able to respond in kind.
Last summer, the United States began supplying Ukraine with HIMARS rocket artillery systems with a range of about 50 miles, which made a significant difference in the war. In December, Ukraine showed it could adapt a Soviet-era surveillance drone into a long-range weapon for strikes inside Russia. And Britain this month began to give Ukraine a high-precision, airborne Storm Shadow cruise missile with a range of about 150 miles – far enough to reach any corner of Ukraine-controlled Russia.
After the attack in Berdyansk on Sunday, local Russian officials stated that Kyiv had used the newly acquired Storm Shadow.
Russian forces have turned Berdyansk, a port on the Sea of Azov, into a military stronghold, using it as a base for soldiers and a transit point for supplies, according to military analysts.
Closer to the front line in the Donetsk region, Russian forces breached a dam on the Vovcha River on Thursday, causing flooding downstream that threatened six villages, home to nearly 1,000 people, Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s regional administrator, said Friday. The attack may have been an attempt to block the movement of Ukrainian troops behind the lines, a tactic used by both sides in this war.
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly warned of the risk that Russia will blow up the larger Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River, flooding more areas and lowering the cold reservoir of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, creating an emergency there.
Late on Friday, Ukrainian military intelligence warned that Russia was planning to create an emergency at the power plant, which it controls, “in the next few hours” to provide a pretext for a ceasefire that would prevent a counterattack. The Ukrainian government has issued previous warnings about the threat to the plant, but has rarely been specific.
“An attack will be carried out” on the plant, followed by the announcement of a radioactive leak, the intelligence department said on Telegram, adding that Russia would blame Ukraine. Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power company, repeated the allegations.
The Ukrainians have not provided evidence for their claims, so it is not clear whether this is a case of disinformation intended to throw the Russians off balance. A few hours later, Russian occupation officials claimed that it was the Ukrainians who planned to stage an emergency at the factory.
The United States is monitoring the situation closely but there is no information to support the idea that something is planned, said an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The United States has direct access to data from radiation sensors in the region, the official said.
The United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency has inspectors based at the Zaporizhzhia plant, and a rotation of some coming and others leaving is due Friday. Ukrainians say Russia is interfering. Russia’s state energy company is now monitoring the plant telling Tass that the Ukrainians have blocked it.
The UN agency declined to comment.
On the diplomatic front, Pope Francis, who has offered the Vatican as a mediator, refused to agree with the position of Ukraine and many Western supporters, that Russia should return all the Ukrainian territories it captured. Kyiv cited preconditions for peace talks, stressing that otherwise a ceasefire would only strengthen Russia’s gains.
In an interview on Thursday, in Spanish, with the Telemundo network, Francis was asked twice whether Russia should release the territory. At first, he did not answer the question directly.
“This is a political issue,” said the second. “Peace will be achieved if they can talk.”
Andrew E. Kramer and Maria Varenikova contributed reports from Pokrovsk, Ukraine, and Julian E. Barnes from Washington.
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