Attacks in Ukraine kill 20 people, children’s hospital affected

Russia has fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in a rare broad-daylight attack, killing more than 20 people and hitting a major children’s hospital, officials say.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces fired more than 40 missiles at various cities, damaging infrastructure, commercial and residential buildings in various Ukrainian cities.

According to Kyiv city authorities, nine people were killed and at least 33 injured in the attack on the capital.

In Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, ten people were killed and 31 injured, said Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul.

Another three people died in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine when rockets hit an industrial facility, the governor of the Donetsk region said.

“All services are involved to save as many people as possible,” Zelensky said via the messaging app Telegram.

“And the whole world should use all its determination to finally put an end to the Russian attacks.”

Russia has repeatedly denied carrying out attacks on civilians.

The major attack on Ukraine came as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss a possible peace deal with Ukraine and paid an unexpected visit to Beijing.

In addition, the three-day NATO summit in Washington is just around the corner, which will focus on how to assure Ukraine of the alliance’s full support and give them hope that their country can survive Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack on the capital was one of the heaviest since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

He said the city’s largest children’s hospital had been damaged in the strike, with windows smashed and paneling torn off.

Dazed and sobbing, parents walked out onto the street with their babies in their arms.

“We heard an explosion, then we were showered with debris,” 33-year-old Svitlaka Kravchenko told Reuters after she and her husband Viktor left the shelter.

Her two-month-old baby was unharmed, but Svitlana suffered cuts and her car was buried under the rubble of the destroyed building across the courtyard from the main station.

“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe and I tried to cover (my baby). I tried to cover him with this cloth so he could breathe,” she said.

Local and regional authorities said industrial facilities, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings had been damaged in Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Pokrovsk, Kramatarosk and other cities.

With AP