KYIV (AFP) — Ukraine accused Russia of committing a “war crime” during its weekend attack on the city of Kharkiv, as the United States (US)-backed ceasefire efforts continue to prove elusive.

Six strikes hit the northeastern border city overnight Saturday into Sunday, wounding personnel undergoing treatment at a military hospital and killing at least two people in a residential building, according to Ukrainian officials.

A spokesperson for the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office, Dmytro Chubenko, confirmed two deaths and said another 30 people were wounded, including children.

According to the emergency medical services, the “massive attack” reduced one home to a fiery ruin and damaged other houses, office buildings, cars and garages.

The Ukrainian army said that a military hospital building and nearby residential buildings “were damaged by a Shahed drone.”

“According to preliminary reports, there are casualties among the military personnel who were undergoing treatment at the medical center,” it added.

Kyiv does not typically reveal information on military casualties and did not say how many soldiers were wounded.

Russians capture villages

Meanwhile, Russian forces have captured a village just seven kilometers from the border of Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region in their latest battlefield advance, Moscow said Sunday.

The Kremlin’s troops have not crossed the boundary of the region since their offensive began three years ago, but they have been grinding towards it for months in the hope of a breakthrough.

Seizing land in the Dnipropetrovsk region would be seen as a major propaganda victory for Russia, though military analysts have said such a crossing would have little strategic value.

Russian army units “liberated the village of Zaporizhzhia” in the eastern Donetsk region, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. The Donetsk region borders Dnipropetrovsk to the east.

The village of Zaporizhzhia, which shares the same name as the southern Ukrainian region, had a population of around 200 people before the conflict.

The defense ministry also said Moscow’s forces captured the village of Shchebraki in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Panteleimonivka in the eastern Donetsk region.

US President Donald Trump has been pushing for a speedy end to the fighting since taking office, but his administration has failed to reach a breakthrough despite multiple rounds of negotiation with both sides.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a joint US-Ukrainian plan for a 30-day truce, and this week suggested that President Volodymyr Zelensky be removed from office as part of any peace process.