World
Russia rained missiles down on cities across Ukraine in broad daylight on Monday morning, killing at least 36 civilians and badly damaging Kyiv’s main children’s hospital in the deadliest air strike in months, officials said.
Deadly attacks also occurred Monday in the cities of Kryvyi Rih and Pokrovsk
Thomson Reuters
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Russian attack hits children’s hospital in Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared video on Telegram showing the aftermath of a Russian attack that hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Russia rained missiles down on cities across Ukraine in broad daylight on Monday morning, killing at least 36 civilians and badly damaging Kyiv’s main children’s hospital in the deadliest air strike in months, officials said.
Hundreds of people rushed to clear debris at the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, where windows had been smashed and panels ripped off. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack.
“We heard an explosion, then we were showered with debris,” Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters after she and her husband, Viktor, went out from the shelter. Their two-month-old baby had been unharmed, but Svitlana had suffered cuts, and their car was totally buried under the rubble of the destroyed building across the courtyard from the main ward.
“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe, I was trying to cover [my baby]. I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe,” she said.
The Security Service of Ukraine identified the missile in the children’s hospital attack as an Kh-101 cruise missile.
Twenty-one people were killed in Kyiv and 65 more wounded in the main missile volley and another strike that came two hours later, emergency services said. Debris from the latter missile hit a different Kyiv hospital, killing seven people, they said.
UN Security Council meeting called
Eleven were confirmed dead in Kryvyi Rih and 47 wounded, the emergency services said. Three people had been killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the regional governor said. One person was also killed in the city of Dnipro, officials said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would retaliate and called on Kyiv’s western allies to give a firm response to the attack.
“We will retaliate against these people. We will deliver a powerful response from our side to Russia, for sure. The question to our partners is: can they respond?” Zelenskyy said while in Poland.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said he had discussed the deadly Russian attack on Ukraine on Monday with International Criminal Court (ICC), while the UN Security Council was set to discuss the attack on Tuesday.
World leaders expressed horror at the hospital strikes, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling it “abhorrent.”
“It cannot be justified,” Trudeau said in a statement. “My heart goes out to the families who are grieving. Canada’s commitment to Ukraine remains as strong as ever.”
“Attacking innocent children. The most depraved of actions,” said newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression — our support won’t falter.”
Ukraine’s largest private energy producer DTEK said three electricity substations and electricity networks in the capital Kyiv were damaged in the latest Russian missile strike.
Local and regional authorities said industrial facilities, infrastructure, and residential and commercial buildings were also damaged in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Pokrovsk and Kramatarosk.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, although its attacks have killed thousands of civilians since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine. Moscow said its strikes were retaliation for attacks on Russia.
The governor of the Russian Belgorod region bordering Ukraine said two civilians had been killed and three injured after Ukrainian shells hit a village.
Attacks on the eve of NATO summit
Zelenskyy was out of country, meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday in Warsaw, where the two leaders plan to sign an agreement on security co-operation.
Both leaders were then set to travel to Washington, D.C., where leaders of NATO countries will begin a three-day summit of the military alliance.
“This callous aggression — a total disregard for human life, jeopardizing European & Transatlantic security — is why leaders will make significant security commitments to Ukraine this week,” the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, posted on X.
Ukraine Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said the military still lacked enough air defences and urged Kyiv’s allies to supply more systems promptly to help protect its cities and infrastructure from regular Russian aerial attacks.
