‘Total disregard for human life’: UN to meet after attack on children’s hospital in Kyiv

July 9, 2024 Keed

Key Points

The Ukrainian government has announced a day of mourning for one of the worst attacks since the start of the war.
Casualties have also been confirmed in several other regions across Ukraine.
The UN Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting to discuss how it can further support Ukraine.

The main children’s hospital in Kyiv has been hit by a Russian missile in broad daylight in an attack that also rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 36 civilians, local officials say.

Parents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack.

Windows had been smashed and panels ripped off, and hundreds of Kyiv residents were helping to clear debris.

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

People killed and injured across the country by air strikes

The government proclaimed a day of mourning on Tuesday for one of the worst air attacks of the war, which it said demonstrated that Ukraine urgently needs an upgrade of its air defences from its allies.

Air defences shot down 30 of 38 missiles, the air force said.

Fifty civilian buildings, including residential houses, a business centre and two medical facilities were damaged in Kyiv, the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro and two eastern cities, the interior minister said.

An online video showed a missile falling from the sky towards the children’s hospital followed by a large explosion.

The location of the video was verified from visible landmarks.

The Security Service of Ukraine identified the missile as an Kh-101 cruise missile.

Twenty-two people, including two children, were killed in Kyiv and 82 more were wounded in the main missile volley and another strike that came two hours later, officials said.

Rescue workers carry the body of a child, killed after Russia’s missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine. Source: AP / Alex Babenko

Eleven were confirmed dead in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 64 were wounded, regional officials said.

Three people were killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the governor said.

Russia claims it was aiming at military targets as Zelenksyy pledges to retaliate

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would retaliate and called on the country’s allies to give a firm response to the attack.

“We will retaliate against these people, we will deliver a powerful response from our side to Russia, for sure. The question to our partners is: can they respond?” Zelenskyy, who is visiting Poland, said during a joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Diplomats said the United Nations Security Council would meet on Tuesday at the request of the United Kingdom, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the United States.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine.

The attack came a day before leaders of NATO countries were due to begin a three-day summit of the military alliance that Zelenskyy is expected to attend, with the war in Ukraine one of the focuses.

“This callous aggression – a total disregard for human life, jeopardising European & Transatlantic security – is why leaders will make significant security commitments to Ukraine this week,” the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, posted on X.

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