Russia-Ukraine war: Russian forces launch hypersonic missiles against Ukrainian targets

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A major Russian missile attack on Ukraine killed at least 20 people and injured more than 50 on Monday, officials said. One missile hit a major children’s hospital in the capital, Kyiv, where rescue workers were searching the rubble for victims.

Russian shelling with more than 40 missiles of different types targeted five Ukrainian cities, hitting residential buildings and public infrastructure, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post.

Ten people were killed and 37 injured in attacks in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine. The head of the city administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, spoke of a massive rocket attack.

At the Ochmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, rescue workers were searching for people under the rubble of a partially collapsed wing of the facility, Zelensky said, adding that the number of victims was not yet known.

Vsevolod Dorofiev, the chief instructor of a volunteer medical unit, said some people had died, but did not say how many or whether they were children or adults.

On social media, Zelensky said: “It is very important that the world does not remain silent about this now and that everyone sees what Russia is and what it is doing.”

The attack comes on the eve of a three-day NATO Summit in Washington, where the focus is on how to convince Ukraine of the alliance’s unwavering support. Support And give Ukrainians hope that their country can survive Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War.

At the children’s hospital, a two-story building was partially destroyed. In the ten-story main building of the hospital, windows and doors were blown out and walls were blackened. In one room, the floor was splattered with blood.

Medical staff and locals helped clear away the rubble while searching for children and medical staff who might be trapped underneath. Volunteers formed a line and passed rocks and debris to each other. Smoke was still rising from the building, and volunteers and rescue workers worked wearing protective masks.

The attack forced the hospital to close and evacuate. Some mothers carried their children on their backs. Others waited with their children in the courtyard while calls to doctors went unanswered.

Elsewhere in Kyiv, authorities said seven people were killed and 25 injured in the heaviest Russian bombardment of the capital in nearly four months. The daytime attacks included Kinzhal hypersonic missilesone of the most modern Russian weapons, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The Kinzhal flies at ten times the speed of sound and is therefore difficult to intercept.

The city’s buildings shook from the explosions. An entire section of a multi-story residential building in one Kyiv district was destroyed, officials said. Three electrical substations in two Kyiv districts were damaged or completely destroyed, energy company DTEK said.

The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said the attack occurred at a time when many people were on the streets of the city.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said official assessments of the consequences of the attack were still being made.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine