Russia attacked Kiev’s main children’s hospital with a missile in broad daylight on Monday and also rained missiles on other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes in months.
Parents carrying children walked down the street outside the hospital, stunned and crying after the rare airstrike in broad daylight. Windows were shattered and panels torn off, and hundreds of Kiev residents helped clear away the rubble.
“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby). I was trying to cover him with a cloth so he could breathe,” Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who stopped in Poland before leaving for Washington for the NATO summit, said the death toll was 37, including three children. More than 170 people were injured.
But the number of casualties in attacks in various areas was at least 41.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Zelensky said more than 100 buildings had been damaged, including a children’s hospital and maternity centre in Kiev, a children’s nursery and a business centre and homes.
“The Russian terrorists will have to answer for this,” he wrote. “Concern does not stop terrorism. Sympathy is not a weapon.”
The interior ministry said there was also damage in the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro and two eastern towns.
The government declared a day of mourning on Tuesday for one of the war’s deadliest air strikes, which it said showed Ukraine needed urgent upgrades of its air defences from its Western allies.
The Air Force said the air defence system shot down 30 of the 38 missiles.
An online video obtained by Reuters showed a missile falling towards a children’s hospital followed by a huge explosion. The location of the video was confirmed by visible landmarks.
The Ukrainian security service identified the missile as a Kh-101 cruise missile.
Military officials in Kiev said 27 people were killed in the capital, including three children, and 82 were wounded in the main missile attack and another two hours later.
Damage across the capital
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was one of the biggest of the war, causing damage in seven districts of the city. The health minister said five units of a children’s hospital were damaged and children were evacuated to other facilities.
Eleven people were confirmed dead and 68 injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional authorities said. The governor said three people were killed in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, where missiles hit an industrial facility.
Addressing a press conference in Warsaw alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Zelensky called on Kiev’s Western allies to respond harshly to the attack.
“We will retaliate against these people, we will definitely give a powerful response to Russia on our part. The question to our partners is, can they respond?” Zelensky said.
The attack came a day before the start of a three-day summit of NATO leaders, which will focus mainly on the war in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden said Moscow’s deadly missile strikes on Ukraine, including on a children’s hospital in Kiev, were a “horrifying reminder of Russia’s brutality”.
In a statement released by the White House, Biden said Washington and its NATO allies would announce new measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses.
The UN Security Council will meet on Tuesday at the request of Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the United States, diplomats said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tchekerk condemned the attacks, saying “the victims include some of Ukraine’s sickest children.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said its military forces had attacked defense industry sites and aviation installations.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, though its attacks have killed thousands of civilians since it launched the offensive in February 2022.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general said he had discussed the attacks with International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan, and said his office would share evidence with the ICC.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustam Umarov said Ukraine still lacks adequate air defences and urged Kiev’s allies to quickly provide more systems to protect cities from Russian attacks.
Air force representative Col. Yuri Ignat said it has become more difficult to fend off Russian attacks as Moscow’s military continues to escalate its bombing tactics.
“The enemy’s missiles are equipped with additional means, including radar and thermal traps,” Ignat wrote on Facebook.
He said the missiles flew at extremely low altitudes during Monday’s attacks.
DTEK, the largest private power producer, said three power substations and networks in Kiev were damaged.
The power system has already suffered so much damage from targeted Russian air strikes that began in March that power outages have become widespread.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
