Ukraine calls for NATO intervention after Putin crosses ‘red lines’

Russian missile attacks over Ukraine on Monday demonstrate the urgency of NATO members’ help in strengthening Kyiv’s air defense capabilities, said a board member of the children’s hospital, which was one of the facilities hit. Newsweek.

Comments by Ukrainian MP Maria Ionova at the start of NATO’s 75th anniversary summit reflect Kyiv’s calls for months for more help from the alliance and other countries to counter Russian missiles and drones.

Kyiv asked NATO for seven Patriot systems in April, and US Ambassador to the alliance Julianne Smith said a decision was expected this week amid outrage over the largest Russian missile attack in months.

When Ionova arrived at the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, where she is a member of the board of trustees, she found the devastating aftermath of an attack that destroyed part of the country’s largest children’s hospital and killed at least two adults. Kyiv said it was a Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile.

“I saw wounded doctors trying to save people and find children,” she said Newsweek, He describes that during the scuffle there were two air raid sirens warning of further danger.

“When we took the children to the ambulances, all the corridors were covered in blood and the children were very scared. It is too much for them to suffer from cancer and be exposed to such terror,” she said.

She said 627 children were in the hospital when it was hit, eight of whom were injured. 94 were taken to other facilities in Kyiv, while 68 remained for treatment in the buildings that were unscathed in the attack.

Another 465 children who required planned treatment were examined and temporarily discharged home. A separate maternity ward in Kyiv was partially destroyed by falling debris, killing four people.

“This is going too far – deliberately shooting children with cancer. I don’t know where the red lines are in this brutality and terror, because it was intentional,” said Ionova, a member of the Ukrainian European Solidarity party.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry and the Kremlin for comment.

The Kremlin has repeatedly reiterated its denials since the war began, insisting that these were not attacks on civilian infrastructure. Moscow said the hospital was hit by fragments of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.

In a review by email to NewsweekAnalytics firm Fenix ​​​​Insight said on Tuesday that Russia’s claims were “not credible due to the images shown of the missile in flight and the structural damage to the hospital buildings.”

The treatment needs of children at Okhmatdyt Hospital are complex and the facility provides specialized care.

“This missile was really very powerful because the surgical departments, the toxicology departments and the hemodialysis department were completely destroyed,” Ionova said. “Now they are checking what equipment we still have.”

Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, head of public relations for the Ukrainian Air Force, said the missiles flew at “extremely low” altitude, which the Institute for War Research believes indicates a change in Moscow’s tactics. The aim is to give the Ukrainian air defenses no time to react in order to “inflict maximum damage.”

Monday’s attacks are likely to further encourage Kyiv’s allies to provide more weapons and air defense capabilities. Ukrainian media reported that Ukraine and Poland are working on a system that would allow Polish air defenses to shoot down Russian missiles and drones.

Tuesday was observed as a day of mourning across Ukraine after the rocket attacks killed at least 41 people and injured 166. Ionova said Kyiv was expecting a strong response from its allies to “stop Russia in Ukraine because we want peace.”

“Unfortunately, there will only be peace if we get more long-range missiles, air defenses and F-16 fighter jets to protect us and destroy Russian military infrastructure,” she said.