Posts falsely blame Ukraine for a rocket attack on a Kyiv children’s hospital

CLAIM: Ukraine is responsible for Missile attack which hit the Ochmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv on Monday.

AP’s assessment: False. The Ukrainian security service wrote in a statement on Telegram that it found wreck was hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile in the hospital and has initiated proceedings for war crimes. The Russian Defense Ministry claims without evidence in a Telegram post that images from Kyiv showed that the damage was caused by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile. As alleged proof of Ukraine’s responsibility, social media users shared old photosand falsely claimed that they had shown fragments of such rockets found in the hospital after Monday’s attack.

THE FACTS: After Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital was hit in a daytime raid that Dozens of Russian missiles Posts circulated on social media falsely claiming that Ukraine was responsible for the attack.

“Ukraine blew up its own children’s hospital in Kyiv with an American anti-aircraft missile this morning,” said one X-post that had received about 9,200 likes and more than 4,300 shares as of Monday. “Stop sending BOMBS to these TERRORISTS, @POTUS.”

Another post on X, which has been liked and shared over 5,500 times, states: “A Ukrainian children’s hospital was hit by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile. Ukraine fires up to three anti-aircraft missiles per Russian cruise missile, but none can hit the Russian missile… that’s why they happen to land in the city.”

But the Ukrainian security service wrote on Telegram Wreckage of a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile was found at the site – including fragments of the rear fuselage with a serial number and a rudder – and proceedings for war crimes were initiated.

The Kh-101 is an air-launched missile that flies low to avoid detection by radar. Ukraine said it shot down 11 of 13 Kh-101 missiles on Monday. The Associated Press reported. The International Criminal Court Articles of Association According to the organization, deliberate attacks on “hospitals and assembly points for the sick and wounded, unless they are military targets,” are a war crime.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, also on Telegramsaid the attacks were directed against Ukrainian military facilities and airbases and were successful. It denied that civilian facilities were targeted and claimed without evidence that images from Kyiv suggested the damage to the hospital was caused by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.

Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which is now in its third year, Russian politicians regularly used that Moscow’s forces never attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, despite ample evidence to the contrary, including reports from AP.

Some posts share photos that allegedly show fragments of Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles found in the hospital, which are supposed to prove that Ukraine is responsible for the attack. One image is online since at least 2022 and another since at least May.

Two more photos was originally posted by a Ukrainian media outlet on Telegram with the headline “Rocket debris found in Kyiv after massive missile attack.” The post, written in Ukrainian, does not specify what type of missile the debris came from, nor where in Kyiv it was found.

At least 31 people were killed and more than 150 injured in the rocket attack on Monday. The AP reportedIt was Russia’s heaviest bombardment of Kyiv in nearly four months, hitting seven of the city’s 10 districts. Seven people were killed in the capital, including two hospital staff, and three children were injured. Ten people were killed in attacks in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s birthplace in central Ukraine.

The attack occurred one day before the scheduled start of a three-day NATO Summit in Washington to consider how to convince Kiev of the alliance unwavering support And give Ukrainians hope that their country can survive Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War.
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This is part of AP’s efforts to combat widespread false and misleading information circulating on the Internet. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.