Four Ukrainian health care workers were killed on Sunday when Russian forces launched an attack during an evacuation of psychiatric patients from a hospital in Kharkiv Province in the northeast of the country, according to the head of the regional military administration, Oleh Synyehubov.
The attack in the village of Strilecha, which lies north of the regional capital and near the Russian border, is the latest in which health care workers have been killed or injured since Moscow’s invasion began in February.
“Russians opened massive fire during evacuation,” Mr. Synyehubov wrote on the Telegram social messaging app. “Unfortunately, four health workers were killed and two patients injured.”
Only a few dozen of the more than 600 patients at the facility had been evacuated, he wrote. His post did not give further details and it was unclear whether the attack involved artillery or missiles.
According to Mr. Synyehubov, the attack was the second in two days on the village, which lies right along the border about 15 miles north of Kharkiv. In a separate post, he wrote that two women were killed on Saturday when a Russian tank opened fire on a civilian vehicle.
There was no independent confirmation of Mr. Synyehubov’s reports.
Ukrainian forces retook much of Kharkiv Province this month in a swift counteroffensive that has handed the government in Kyiv a military advantage and made parts of the eastern Donbas region held by Moscow more vulnerable.
The Russian military has shelled targets across the frontline in recent days, killing at least five civilians, even as their forces are under pressure.
Before the attack on Sunday, 100 health care workers had been killed in Ukraine in more than 500 attacks on health care facilities since Russia’s invasion in February, according to data from the U.N. World Health Organization. More than 120 others had been injured.
Russia has said it does not strike civilian targets, and the defense ministry in Moscow made no comment on Sunday’s report.
