At least 73 injured as Russia bombs a hospital in Kharkiv and power plants across Ukraine

At least 73 people have been injured in a Russian strike on a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The medical facility was struck overnight by ballistic missiles and aerial bombs. On the same night, Russia also carried out several attacks on energy infrastructure across multiple Ukrainian regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that the Russians directly struck a city clinical hospital. Seventy-three people were injured, and the cardiology department, where people were receiving treatment, was damaged.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov confirmed on Telegram that the hospital sustained heavy damage in Monday night's bombardment, with more than 1,000 windows shattered.

Separately, Ukrainian energy sites were hit, including in Kharkiv, in what President Zelenskyy described as a complex, massive attack.

Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the main target was energy — power generation facilities and substations — in the Odesa, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv and Rivne regions.

According to Zelenskyy, Russia launched 289 attack drones overnight, as well as 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles. This came a day after at least 29 people were killed in a Russian strike on an aid distribution centre.

The Russian Ministry of Defence said it had targeted electricity facilities in the Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, claiming the sites supplied power to the Ukrainian army and military factories.

More than 180,000 people were without power in the Zhytomyr region on Tuesday morning after the attacks, Governor Vitalii Bunechko said. Odesa has implemented scheduled power outages in response to the attacks.

Meanwhile, two employees at a Russian oil refinery in Yaroslavl were injured during a Ukrainian drone attack that caused a fire at the site, according to Governor Mikhail Yevrayev.

The latest exchange of attacks comes as the United States ramps up efforts to end the war, with a meeting between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials due to take place in Abu Dhabi next week. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on X late on Monday that the discussions would focus on post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace.

Witkoff added that US negotiators would meet representatives from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the European Union and NATO in Brussels this week, with talks focusing on security guarantees for Ukraine, Europe's post-war security architecture and economic opportunities to support Ukraine's reconstruction.

The attacks come as global attention turns to Tuesday's midterm elections in the US. Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera's Audrey MacAlpine said these were arguably the most important elections in recent years for Ukrainians.

MacAlpine noted that since the Trump administration took office and the House and Senate flipped Republican, there have been no significant US military aid packages for Ukraine — whereas under Biden, during the early years of the war, military aid ran to about $60 billion.

Europe has largely filled that gap, she added, but Ukraine would certainly like US aid to resume; that has been at the top of President Zelenskyy's agenda for over six months.