Russian missiles destroy Kyiv children’s hospital in ‘genocidal’ daytime attack

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Rescue workers searched the rubble of a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday after it was hit by one of dozens of Russian missiles in the heaviest and deadliest wave of airstrikes on the city in nearly four months.

After a broad daylight airstrike on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, which Ukrainian authorities described as “genocide”, parents fled with babies and sick children.

“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe and tried to cover (my baby),” said Svitlana Kravchenko, 33. “I tried to cover him with this cloth so he could breathe.”

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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the horror. The incident occurred on the eve of a three-day NATO summit in Washington to discuss how to convince Ukrainians that their country can survive Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Kyiv has declared a day of mourning.

Vladimir Putin’s forces launched the hypersonic missile attack on five Ukrainian cities, hitting seven of the capital’s 10 districts, as well as Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian Air Force said it intercepted 30 missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday evening that at least 37 civilians were killed and more than 170 injured.

At the hospital, victims were being searched for under the rubble of a two-story wing of the facility that had partially collapsed. In the 10-story main building, windows and doors were blown out and walls were blackened. In one room, the floor was splattered with blood. The intensive care unit, operating rooms and oncology departments were all damaged.

At the time of the attack, three heart surgeries were being performed, and debris from the explosion penetrated the patients’ open chests. The hospital lost water, light and oxygen as a result of the attack, and patients were transferred to other facilities.

Rescue workers formed a line and passed bricks and other debris to each other as they searched through the rubble. Smoke rose from the building, and volunteers and rescue workers worked wearing protective masks. Some mothers carried their children away on their backs.

A few hours after the first attack, another air raid siren sounded and many of them rushed to the hospital’s shelter. Guided through the dark corridors by a flashlight, mothers carried their bandaged children in their arms and medical staff pushed other patients onto stretchers. Volunteers handed out sweets to calm the children.

Marina Ploskonos said her four-year-old son had spinal surgery last week. “My child is terribly scared,” she cried. “This must not happen, we are in a children’s hospital.”

Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said the attack was carried out by “Russian terrorists”.

“The world must see this terror and respond to it,” he said. “This is genocide.”

Daria Herasymchuk, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, said The Independent: “Today they have destroyed many families. Mothers and fathers do not return to their children in the evening and children do not fill out their life books.”

“Have you ever heard a child screaming under the rubble? I have never heard anything more horrific! How long can the world just talk? Every country must act now.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov called on allies to provide more air defense technology.

The Kremlin said Kyiv’s claim that Russia had attacked the hospital was “absolutely untrue,” adding that the destruction was caused by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles.

Ukrainian intelligence said it had found debris from a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile at the site and had opened a war crimes case. The Kh-101 is an air-launched missile that flies low to avoid radar detection.

Hospitals and other medical facilities are protected from military strikes under international law unless they are used for military operations.

The founding charter of the International Criminal Court states that the deliberate attack on buildings “dedicated to religious, educational, artistic, scientific or charitable purposes, as well as on historical monuments, hospitals and assembly points for the sick and wounded, unless they are military objectives, is a war crime”.

The UN Security Council meeting was requested by Great Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the USA.

“We will denounce Russia’s cowardly and despicable attack on the hospital,” said British UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward.

At least three bodies were recovered from a partially destroyed residential building in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district as rescue workers searched for survivors.

The massive blast scorched surrounding buildings, shattered windows and hurled a dog into a nearby yard, said local resident Halina Sichievka.

“Now we have nothing left in our apartment, no windows, no doors, nothing. Nothing at all,” said the 28-year-old.

The Ukrainian military said the attack used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which are among the most modern Russian weapons. They fly at ten times the speed of sound and are therefore difficult to intercept.

AP and Reuters contributed to this report