Patients from destroyed Kyiv children’s hospital await transfer abroad

“Air defense is an issue that is discussed daily with our partners as something that needs to be strengthened,” he added.

The attack also prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to call for a lifting of restrictions on the use of US weapons against targets on Russian territory that had put key air bases out of range. Zelensky said his military must be able to attack Russian aircraft where they are based and upgrade them with new missiles.

The Biden administration has so far refused to ease these restrictions and is also allowing attacks on border areas where Russian forces are planning imminent attacks.

According to Ukrainian authorities, 33 of 44 rockets were intercepted in Monday’s attack.

Those who broke through the country’s air defenses brought death and fire, including in Kyiv, where two people were killed in the Ochmatdyt children’s hospital, and in the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih. More than 70 people were injured.

The barrage came just a day before NATO leaders met for a summit in Washington where support for Ukraine is a key item on the agenda. Although the US and some other NATO countries have opposed accelerated Ukraine’s membership in the alliance, many of them have signed bilateral security agreements with Kyiv promising ongoing assistance.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Monday that it had carried out a massive airstrike on Ukrainian cities. However, senior Moscow officials continued to insist that the targets were exclusively military and denied any responsibility for the attack on the hospital.

Investigators from Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) said the hospital was hit by a Russian Kh-101 missile. Videos and photos of Monday’s attack appeared to show a Kh-101 missile hitting the building.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the hospital’s destruction a “tragedy” but blamed a NATO-provided NASAMS missile for the destruction – a claim for which she provided no evidence.

“The Zelensky regime’s attempts to use the Kyiv children’s hospital tragedy for propaganda purposes confirm its inhuman character,” Zakharova said. She added that Ukrainians “deliberately place air defense systems in residential areas and use civilians as ‘human shields.'”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, insisted that Moscow does not attack civilian targets – even though countless residential buildings, hospitals, theaters and other civilian buildings have been damaged and destroyed since the Russian invasion in 2022. In some cases, entire cities have been devastated.

“I urge you to be guided by the statement of the Ministry of Defense, which absolutely excludes the possibility that the attack was directed at civilian targets and explains that it was the crash of an anti-aircraft missile,” Peskov said.

Ignat of the Ukrainian Air Force press service said Russia has modernized its missiles and drones to make them less detectable, and in the past three months Russia has multiplied its use of ballistic missiles. Some missiles have recently been equipped with radar and heat traps, he said.

“During today’s attack, the cruise missiles flew at extremely low altitudes, in some places fighting took place at heights of up to 50 meters, which of course can also have devastating consequences on the ground,” Ignat wrote in a detailed Facebook post on Monday.

The attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, a leading cancer center, left one doctor and another adult dead, and a dialysis unit destroyed. Eight children were hospitalized with injuries. Many more patients were evacuated to other hospitals in Kyiv, and some were awaiting transfer abroad.

On Tuesday morning, three bodies were recovered from the rubble of a residential building that was also hit in Monday’s attack, bringing the total death toll in the capital to eleven.

After Monday’s attack, the White House reiterated that it would not further relax restrictions on Ukraine attacking targets on Russian territory with U.S. weapons. John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said U.S. weapons could only be used to attack border areas inside Russia where Moscow’s forces may be preparing imminent attacks on Ukraine.

Zelensky said his country urgently needs more than just the sympathy of its supporters and permission to attack Russian military aircraft at their bases.

“Mere concern will not stop terror. Condolences are not a weapon,” Zelensky wrote in a statement on Monday. “We must shoot down Russian missiles. We must destroy Russian warplanes where they are based. Strong steps must be taken to eliminate any security deficit. … Our partners are capable of achieving this. Decisions must be made as soon as possible.”