War in Ukraine: Children’s hospital in Kiev hit by Russian missile

Nurse Nina Nikolaevna barely had time to express her shock as she stared at the still-smoldering rubble of the building that housed the intensive care unit: “We thought we were safe here, the children were safe,” she said. Then an explosion rang out, causing a brief moment of panic among the dense crowd of firefighters, rescue workers, police, journalists and volunteers who had come to help. The air raid siren was lifted a few minutes later in the early afternoon and sounded again almost immediately as there was a new threat of ballistic missile attacks.

On the afternoon of July 8, the city once considered the best protected in Ukraine thanks to the powerful American Patriot air defense systems was in shock. Kyiv, which had been spared from Russian attacks in recent months, mainly targeting the country’s energy infrastructure, was now hit by a fierce assault. Residents who had lived for weeks with the routine of daily power outages now had to deal with a different routine: alarm sirens, the roar of missiles fired by air defenses, the clatter of heavy machine guns targeting approaching drones, and nervous waiting at the foot of subway stations converted into bomb shelters.

Spontaneous solidarity movement

The Russian attack, a barrage of 38 missiles, targeted several cities across the country, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. It was fired in the late morning – not at dawn as the Russian military often does – and killed at least 11 people in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city in the heart of a mining region in central Ukraine. It hit several buildings in the nearby regional capital of Dnipro. But the attacks were most intense in Kyiv.

Moscow denied attacking civilian infrastructure. However, the Russian Defense Ministry changed its version in the afternoon, claiming that the damage to a children’s hospital was caused by “the crash of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.” Several videos clearly show a missile directly hitting the Okhmadyt Clinic, one of the capital’s largest children’s hospitals specializing in oncology.

In a statement from the Vatican press office on July 9, Pope Francis expressed his “deep dismay at the escalation of violence” in both Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, where a school was hit by Israeli airstrikes.

“While expressing condolences to the victims and the innocent injured, he hopes and prays that practical ways can soon be found to end the ongoing conflicts,” the statement said.

On the ground, the shock of the attack almost immediately sparked a spontaneous solidarity movement, fuelled by the arrival of hundreds of water bottles from nearby supermarkets. “We were told it was enough for now, so we’re going home,” explained a local resident who had come to help. With temperatures approaching 30°C, several dozen rescue workers continued to search for people buried in the rubble in the afternoon. The number of casualties is still uncertain, but Ukrainian authorities say at least 33 people were killed in the series of attacks – at least 22 in Kyiv, including two adults in Okhmadyt hospital.

Dozens of ambulances

As human chains cleared an endless series of rubble from the buildings destroyed by the attack, medical staff began evacuating patients to various hospitals in the region. “Sakha, which one would you like to go to?” a doctor asked a somewhat intimidated five-year-old boy, pointing to the dozens of ambulances in the yard. “We have already brought out about 40 children alive and, of course, we will continue,” explained Oleksandr Yatsyna, who ran to a wing of the hospital that had been relatively spared from the attack.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the entire hospital is currently without running water, electricity or oxygen supply and must be completely evacuated. In the afternoon, President Zelensky called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council during a visit to Warsaw and condemned Moscow’s “terror”.

International outrage

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, accused Russia of “recklessly attacking Ukrainian civilians” and stressed that Ukraine needs air defense “at the moment”.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned the situation: “Children are being killed and injured in this war.”

The French Foreign Ministry said: “These barbaric acts, which were directly and specifically directed against a children’s hospital, add to the list of war crimes for which Russia is held responsible.”