Ukraine: Attack on children’s hospital; at least 22 people die in Russian attacks on cities

Kyiv, Ukraine
CNN
—

A barrage of Russian missile attacks hit targets in cities across Ukraine on Monday, including a children’s hospital in Kyiv, killing at least 22 people and wounding 68 others, officials said.

Ukrainian officials said the rare daytime airstrike hit Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, during rush hour.

According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, nine people were killed and 23 others were injured in the capital. In Kryvyi Rih, ten people died and 37 others were injured, according to local authorities. Meanwhile, at least three people were killed in the Donetsk region, said the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, Vadym Filashkin.

Among the buildings affected was the Okhmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital, which plays a crucial role in caring for some of the country’s most serious children. According to Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets, around 7,000 operations are performed there every year, including cancer and hematological treatments.

Videos from the scene showed volunteers working with police and security services to search through the rubble as smoke rose from the hospital. Staff described trying to get children to safety after the attack. Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko said intensive care units, oncology departments and surgical units were damaged.

“The most important task is to get people out of the rubble and provide assistance to those we can reach, as we have already gotten the first ones out,” he said in a Telegram post.

Natalia Sardudinova, a senior nurse, described the moment the strike reached the hospital, saying: “It was scary, but we survived.”

“It was loud, the windows were creaking,” she told CNN. “As soon as the alarm went off, the children were taken out into the hallway.”

She said that two children were in the operating room at the time of the explosion and that both were taken to the shelter in the basement after the procedures were completed.

“Everything was covered in smoke, there was no air to breathe. The doctor was injured by shrapnel. Windows and doors were blown out. A nurse in the hospital was seriously injured,” Sardudinova added. “My hands are still shaking. They are not letting anyone in now, they are afraid the hospital will collapse.”

Yulia Vasylenko, the mother of an 11-year-old cancer patient in the hospital, said her son Denys was evacuated outside after the attack.

“My son is taking painkillers. He has cancer. He has been off his medication for half a day. He was taken down the stairs from the third floor. There was smoke and heavy dust,” she said.

Iryna Filimonova, a senior nurse in the pediatric urology department, told CNN that an operation on a two-year-old was in progress at the time of the attack.

“The lights went out, everything was out. We took out the instruments and shone flashlights. Everything was quickly stitched,” Filimonova said. “The baby was brought down (to the shelter). I immediately ran to help clear the debris. Some of my fellow nurses who worked in the operating rooms and some doctors were injured by broken glass. Our department was destroyed.”

Another surgical nurse, Oksana Mosiychuk, said they had taken shelter in the emergency room as the explosion rocked the building. Afterward, she added, the medical team had to put out a fire that had broken out in their department, including an operating table that had caught fire.

“Fortunately, everyone is alive. One of our colleagues was seriously injured, he had numerous cuts and shrapnel injuries and was taken away by ambulance. I also have minor shrapnel injuries, but I’m fine. It was very scary. I was worried about the children,” she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that the exact number of victims in the hospital was not yet known and that “people were lying under the rubble,” but everyone, from doctors to local residents, was helping to clear the rubble after the attack.

“Residential buildings, infrastructure and a children’s hospital were damaged. All services are working to save as many people as possible,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X.

He also said that about 40 missiles of various types had been fired at Ukraine.

“The whole world must show all its determination to finally end the Russian attacks. Putin’s power is killing. Only together can we create real peace and security,” he added.

Responding to Monday’s bombardment, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said the country’s infrastructure had been attacked by four dozen Kalibr cruise missiles and Kinzhal ballistic missiles fired from Russia’s Volgograd region.

In a statement, Umerov continued to call for more air defense systems to support the war-torn country. “We continue to work to ensure that the systems promised by our partners arrive in Ukraine as soon as possible,” he said.

Afterwards, air raid sirens continued to sound over Kyiv, and a CNN video showed people who had been evacuated outside the hospital carrying children on stretchers to safety in emergency shelters.

Numerous volunteers later brought urgently needed supplies and donations – including water, food, medicine and diapers – to the hospital.

Several European countries condemned the attacks. France called them “barbaric,” while Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer said attacks on innocent children were “the most reprehensible of all acts.”

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the attacks were “barbaric acts that directly and deliberately targeted a children’s hospital and should be included in the list of war crimes for which Russia is held accountable.”

According to the World Health Organization, since the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, there have been more than 1,600 attacks on medical facilities using heavy weapons, leaving 141 people dead.

Last December, 12 pregnant women and four newborns were lucky to escape from a maternity hospital in Dnipro that had been badly damaged in an airstrike. Earlier, the bombing of a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol, less than a month after Russian troops crossed the border, sparked international criticism.

This story has been updated with additional information.