In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office, a war crimes prosecutor examines the damaged coal miners bus that was hit by Russian drone killing 15 in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine. (AP)
Twelve miners have been killed in a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials and the country’s largest private energy company have said.
DTEK said a bus carrying mine workers home after their shift was hit by a drone in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday. At least 15 others were injured, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
The company initially said 15 people had been killed, but later revised the number to at least 12.
In a separate series of attacks, at least two more people were killed and several others injured across Ukraine overnight and on Sunday, officials said.
Six people were injured when a drone struck a maternity hospital in the city of Zaporizhzhia. Two of those hurt were women who were giving birth at the time.
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Zaporizhzhia regional head Ivan Fedorov said the attack was further “proof of a war directed against life”. BBC Verify confirmed the location as Maternity Hospital No. 3 on Bocharova Street in the eastern part of the city.
Videos shared on social media, carrying official watermarks, showed damaged hospital rooms, broken windows and debris scattered across patient wards, offices and a children’s room. Some footage showed fire damage, while other videos showed firefighters moving patients to safety. No deaths were reported in the hospital attack.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire after a Russian drone hit a coal miners’ bus killing at least 15, officials said, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine. (AP)
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said the strike showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was continuing a “war against civilians contrary to peace efforts”.
Fedorov later said three more people were injured in a separate strike on a residential area in the region. Elsewhere, officials said a man and a woman were killed by a drone strike in the central city of Dnipro.
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A 72-year-old man was injured in the town of Nikopol. In southern Kherson, a 59-year-old woman was seriously wounded by shelling, while three people were injured in a strike in Kharkiv.
Russia launched a wave of attacks on Ukraine’s power system in January, cutting heating and electricity to millions during winter. Temperatures are expected to fall below minus 20 degrees Celsius in some areas this weekend.
Ukraine also said it is working with Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to stop Russia from using Starlink satellite systems for drone attacks. Ukraine’s military depends on Starlink for internet access and said it had found the terminals on Russian long-range drones.
Musk said measures to stop the “unauthorised” use of Starlink appeared to be working. Ukraine’s Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov thanked him for being “a true friend of the Ukrainian people”.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a second round of talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States would begin on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, after being delayed from Sunday.
He did not explain the delay. Talks aimed at ending the war have been led by the US, with a major disagreement over territory. Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine and wants Kyiv to hand over more land, while Ukraine has said it wants Russia to return control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
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In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office, a war crimes prosecutor examines the damaged coal miners bus that was hit by Russian drone killing 15 in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine. (AP) 
