Russia condemned for targeting children’s hospital and civilian buildings in daylight missile barrage across Ukraine
Russian troops have rained missiles down on cities across Ukraine, killing at least 36 civilians and injuring dozens more in the deadliest wave of air strikes in months.
The offensive on Monday blasted Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital, where thousands of children undergo treatment for cancer, heart problems, and severe injuries, in broad daylight.
Parents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who stopped in Poland before heading off to Washington for a NATO summit, put the death toll at 37, including three children. More than 170 were injured.
But tallies of casualties from the sites of attacks in different regions totalled at least 41.
Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP whose son was operated on in the hospital last year, said it was heartbreaking to see the attack on a facility that was one of the last remaining hopes for children injured in the war.
“It’s been one of the most tragic days in a long, long time not just in Kyiv but in all of Ukraine,” she told RN Breakfast.
“Russia today has chosen to destroy this place of hope. This place that was giving children back their lives.”
Ms Vasylenko said more than half the missiles launched were aimed at civilian infrastructure and not military targets, adding that Okhmatdyt Hospital had previously been targeted but never struck.
Windows were seen smashed and panels ripped off, with hundreds of Kyiv residents coming together to help clear the debris.
“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,” Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 30 of 38 missiles but Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said the nation 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.
Air Force representative Colonel Yuri Ignat said it became more difficult to repel Russian attacks as Moscow’s forces kept enhancing their bombardment tactics.
“Enemy missiles are equipped with additional means, including radar and thermal traps,” Mr Ignat wrote on Facebook.
The interior ministry confirmed 50 civilian buildings, including residential houses, a business centre and two medical facilities, were damaged in Kyiv, the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro, and two eastern cities.
An online video obtained by Reuters showed a missile falling from the sky towards the children’s hospital followed by a large explosion. The location of the video was verified from visible landmarks.
The Security Service of Ukraine identified the missile as an Kh-101 cruise missile.
Twenty-two people, including two children, were killed in Kyiv and 82 more were wounded in the main missile volley and another strike that came two hours later.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the bombardment was one of the largest of the war, with the damage registered in seven districts across the city.
The Health Minister said five units of the children’s hospital, the largest and best equipped in the country, were damaged and children were evacuated to other facilities.
Eleven were confirmed dead in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 64 were wounded. A further three people were killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility.
The missiles flew at extremely low altitudes during Monday’s attacks.
Calls for Western intervention
The government proclaimed a day of mourning for one of the worst air attacks of the war, which it said demonstrated Ukraine urgently needed an upgrade of its air defences from its Western allies.
Mr Zelenskiy vowed retaliation and called on Ukraine’s Western allies for a firm response to the attacks.
“Russian terrorists must be held accountable for this. Mere concern does not stop terror. Condolences are not a weapon,” he wrote on social media.
“We need to shoot down Russian missiles. Russian combat aircraft must be destroyed where they are based. Strong steps must be taken to eliminate any security deficit.
“The world has the necessary strength to do this. Our partners are capable of making it happen.”
The attack came a day before leaders of NATO countries were due to begin a three-day summit of the military alliance that Mr Zelenskiy is expected to attend, with the war in Ukraine and acquisition of upgraded air defences the president’s main focus.
Diplomats said the United Nations Security Council would meet on Tuesday at the request of Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the United States.
“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 US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, posted on X.
Speaking to News Channel, Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said the objective of the UNSC meeting was to hold Moscow accountable for what was evidently a “deliberate” strike.
“It was a deliberate attack and the purpose of it was to intimidate Ukrainian people,” he said.
“There is clear footage of a Russian cruise missile hitting the hospital … there is a confirmation that it was a deliberate attack.
“We want to hold Russia to account in the public domain, to name and shame what Russia is doing and call on them to cease doing that and withdraw from Ukraine immediately.”
Russia dismisses criticism
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, although its attacks have killed thousands of civilians since it launched its invasion in February 2022.
The Kremlin also deflected blame by arguing the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defence systems.
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said he discussed the attacks with International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan, adding that his office would be sharing evidence with the ICC.
The United Nations, human rights groups, and Ukraine’s Western and European Union partners have decried the strikes and Russia’s disregard for civilian life.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said attacking medical facilities was “particularly shocking”, while the US denounced “another savage missile attack”.
France’s foreign ministry called the bombardment of a children’s hospital “barbaric” and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as “abhorrent”.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also called out the targeting of civilian infrastructure and hospitals.
“Australia continues to support the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal, immoral war,” she wrote on X.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said rescue workers would know later on Monday night, local time, whether more people remained trapped under rubble at Kyiv’s main children’s hospital.
SOURCE: ABCNEWS
