At least 24 dead after ‘massive’ Russian missile attack on Ukrainian cities

A children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv was badly damaged by Russian attacks; an attack in the early hours of the morning left 24 people dead across the country.

The rare attack in broad daylight left at least ten people dead in Kyiv, two of whom died in the Ochmatdyt children’s hospital, which was badly damaged in the explosion.

The head of the military administration in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih said at least ten people were killed there, three more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and one in Dnipro.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is currently visiting Poland and is expected to sign a security pact there, said Russia must face consequences for its attacks on civilians.

“Different cities: Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk. More than 40 rockets of various types. Residential buildings, infrastructure and a children’s hospital were damaged,” said Zelensky.

Lesia Lysytsia, a doctor at Okhmadyt Children’s Hospital, told the BBC that the moment the missile hit was “like in a movie”, with “a big light, then a terrible noise”.

“Part of the hospital was destroyed and there was a fire in another part. There was really serious damage – maybe 60 to 70 percent of the hospital,” she said.

Images from the scene showed small children, some with IV drips, sitting outside the hospital during the evacuation.

Dr. Lysytsia said Okhmadyt is a large hospital that performs many tasks, including cancer treatment and organ transplants.

“Now we are in the process of evacuating patients to the nearest hospital. (But) many patients are intubated and on ventilators and are not allowed to have contact with other patients or go outside,” she said.

In the hours following the first impact, another explosion shook the area and hundreds of people sought shelter in an underpass.

Mr Zelensky said in a social media post that people were trapped under the rubble of the hospital.

“Right now, everyone – doctors and regular people – is helping to clear the rubble,” the president wrote.

Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, told Reuters from the hospital that the bombing was “one of the worst attacks” on the capital since the war began.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service posted on social media that a maternity ward in Kyiv had also been partially destroyed by falling debris. Four people were killed and three injured.

Elsewhere, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih, posted on the messaging app Telegram that at least 10 people were killed and 31 injured in the attack on the city. Of those, 10 were seriously injured, he said.

Kryvyi Rih is Mr Zelensky’s hometown and has been repeatedly attacked by Russia since the start of its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Dnipro regional head Sergiy Lysak said one person was killed and six others injured in the city of Dnipro, adding that a high-rise building and a shop were hit.

Three people were killed in Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces had taken control of several villages in recent weeks.

The Russian bombing came as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow for a two-day state visit and is scheduled to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Monday.

Russia denied carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure and insisted that the attacks targeted military facilities.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov responded to the attacks by calling on the country’s allies to help quickly strengthen air defenses.

“Our defense capabilities are still inadequate… We need more air defense systems,” he said.

The UN human rights mission in Ukraine has said that civilian casualties have risen in recent months as Russia has resumed air strikes. A recent report said May was the month with the highest number of civilian deaths in nearly a year.