TEHRAN, Aug. 06 (MNA) – A blood transfusion center, a university, and an aeronautics facility in Ukraine have been damaged in deadly air raids as Russian and Ukrainian forces escalated their attacks following Kyiv's strike on a Russian tanker.

The attacks late on Saturday came as senior officials from 40 countries – including China, India, and the United States – held talks in Saudi Arabia on how to end the war in Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported.

A final declaration is not expected from the two-day meeting.

Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the attack on the blood center in the eastern town of Kupiansk late on Saturday, while Moscow-installed officials accused Kyiv of using cluster munitions to damage a university in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack on Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region as a “war crime” and said, “There are dead and wounded”.

He did not say how many were killed or injured.

Hours after Zelenskyy’s report, the Moscow-installed governor of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, said a university building in the area was in flames due to Ukrainian shelling.

He said preliminary information indicated the cause of the fire was the controversial cluster munitions.

RHM/PR