A Ukrainian hospital has been hit by a Russian kamikaze drone strike just hours after Volodymyr Zelensky was banished from the White House following a row with US President Donald Trump.
A Russian strike on a medical facility triggered a fire late on Friday in Kharkiv, Ukraine‘s second-largest city and also hit several other targets, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
One child was injured in the attack on the hospital.
He said drones also hit an area near a filling station and a building close to a high-rise apartment building.
Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said all the strikes were in central districts of the city and emergency crews were working at the different sites.
It follows a tense meeting between the two Presidents in the Oval Office earlier today, in front of the world’s media.
The meeting ended with Zelensky walking out of the West Wing prematurely, as a press conference scheduled later in the day was cancelled.
Shocking videos have captured the moment the drone struck the hospital, a huge crash can be heard in the distance.
Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said eight Russian drones had hit civilian areas in three central districts of the city, a frequent target of Russian attacks in the three-year-old war.
The attack triggered a fire in the medical facility and other sites and dozens of buildings were damaged. The child was injured by flying glass.
In the Black Sea port of Odesa, another frequent Russian target in southern Ukraine, a drone attack triggered fires in a private home and a business, killing one person and injuring
Just hours earlier, tempers flared on all sides during the Oval Office showdown. Trump threatened to abandon Ukraine completely if Zelensky did not agree to his peace terms. He also accused Zelensky of not being grateful.
Zelensky held his own, even showing Trump photos he brought of the devastation to his country, and arguing he had thanked the American people.
The yelling match was unlike anything ever seen publicly in the Oval Office. And it played out on TV screens across the world.
‘You’re gambling with World War III,’ Trump bellowed Zelensky at one point.
Both men were tense and on the defensive as they repeatedly tried to talk over one another. Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., seated to the side in the Oval Office, buried her face in her hands.
After the contentious meeting Trump announced he had asked Zelensky to leave.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote:. ‘It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved.
‘Because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.’
After the cameras left the Oval Office, Zelensky went to a holding room in the West Wing. He and Trump did not meet again.
Trump issued his statement. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were in the Oval Office meeting, went and told Zelensky his meetings at the White House were over, a White House official said.
The two leaders never had their scheduled lunch. White House reporters saw it sitting in the hallway outside the Oval Office, untouched.
Trump and Zelensky had been scheduled to participate in a press conference later Friday. That was canceled.
Zelensky was seen exiting the White House about two hours after his arrival. He then posted his own message on social media.
He wrote: ‘Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.’
