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At least 20 people were killed and more than 60 injured as Russian missiles on Monday struck cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, where the main children’s cancer hospital was hit.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said the Okhmatdyt hospital, the leading treatment centre in Ukraine for children’s cancer, took a direct hit. Interior minister Ihor Klymenko said seven people were killed and four injured at the hospital site.
Regional authorities in south-central Kryvyi Rih reported 10 people were killed dead and 31 injured by strikes in residential areas. At least three more people were killed in the eastern city of Pokrovsk and one in nearby Dnipro, local authorities reported.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, one of the most advanced weapons in the Kremlin’s arsenal and among the most difficult for air defence systems to intercept.
Monday’s attack comes as Nato leaders, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, prepare to gather for a summit in Washington this week, at which strengthening the alliance’s position towards Russia and bolstering Ukraine’s defences are expected to be top items on the agenda.
Alla, a nurse at the hospital who declined to give her surname, said the toxicology ward had been destroyed, adding that children and staff were in the building when the missile struck.
“Something hit nearby and then it hit us. After that it was chaos and I don’t remember everything,” said Alla, who works in the main building.
The blast ripped off the facade of the main hospital building and its windows. Glass and debris were still falling from the hospital structures more than two hours after the attack.
Hundreds of civilian volunteers and rescue workers descended on the hospital to clear rubble from the destroyed building. Klymenko estimated that rescue workers had three hours to save those under the debris.
An image posted by Ukraine’s presidential office showed a child with a head injury. Hospital staff in dusty scrubs stood around in shock, while some were being treated for injuries.
“Russia cannot help but know where its missiles are flying, and must fully answer for all its crimes: against people, against children, against humanity in general,” said Zelenskyy, who arrived in Warsaw on Monday morning.
Russia’s defence ministry released a statement that did not mention the strike on the children’s hospital, but implied that Ukraine was at fault.
The ministry claimed it had hit a number of Ukrainian defence manufacturing sites and air bases in response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy and industrial infrastructure.
Ukraine’s accusations that Russia had deliberately targeted civilian facilities were “absolutely not accurate”, it said. It claimed that footage of the strike on Kyiv “unambiguously confirmed” that a Ukrainian anti-air missile had caused “the fact of the destruction”, without mentioning the children’s hospital.
Large plumes of smoke could be seen rising in at least four other places in Kyiv. Klitschko’s office reported that fragments landed on apartment buildings, an office block and houses in seven districts in the capital.
Russian missiles also hit Ukraine’s southern cities of Dnipro, Kropyvnytskyi and Kryviy Rih, where local authorities reported further civilian casualties.
Kryviy Rih is home to some of Ukraine’s few remaining large industrial enterprises. Dnipro’s regional governor Oleksandr Vikul said an industrial complex had been hit, without naming the plant.
Zelenskyy said 40 different missiles were used in the attack.
He said the hospital was “one of the most important children’s hospitals not only in Ukraine but also in Europe”.
The president called on further western support to bolster Ukraine’s defences and for Kyiv’s allies to hold Moscow to account for its attacks.
“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,” he said from Warsaw, where he was due to meet Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The two leaders are expected to sign a security pact.
Nato leaders are expected to make a one-year, €40bn pledge of support for Ukraine this week as the alliance’s key members are engulfed in domestic political turmoil, limiting their capacity to commit more long-term resources to the war-torn nation.
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