Ukraine says Russian forces hit psychiatric hospital

Ukraine accused Russian forces of hitting a psychiatric hospital near the eastern Ukrainian town of Izyum on Friday but emergency services said no one was hurt.

"All 30 staff and 330 patients were in a bomb shelter at the time of the strike," Ukraine's State Emergencies Service said in a statement.

Oleh Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region which includes Izyum, had earlier on Friday described the attack as "a war crime against civilians" and repeated allegations that Russian forces were carrying out genocide in Ukraine.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in what it calls a "special operation" to disarm and "de-Nazify" Ukraine.

The attack near Izyum followed the bombardment of a hospital in the southern city of Mariupol in which Ukrainian officials said three people were killed on Wednesday, including a child. Russia has said it will look into the incident but some officials dismissed reports of the attack as "fake news".

Synegubov said separately that Russian forces had repeatedly shelled residential areas of Kharkiv and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 48 schools had been destroyed in the city, which has a peacetime population of about 1.4 million.

Synegubov said there was no danger to civilians after an institute containing a nuclear laboratory was hit.

Radiation levels at all plants had not changed, it said.