Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital has been treating patients throughout the war. Today, one of the doctors was killed by a Russian missile attack.

July 9, 2024

Over the next few days, all donations to Let’s Help (a fundraiser co-founded by Meduza to support Ukrainian civilians who have suffered from the Russian war) will go to the Okhmatdyt Hospital in Kyiv, the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine. At the time of writing this article, a few hours after the Russian missile attack on the hospital on July 8, the project had already received more than 10,000 euros.

A Russian attack on Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital left at least two people dead on July 8. At the time of writing, rescue workers and volunteers were still sifting through the rubble of Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital. According to preliminary reports, the attack largely destroyed the hospital’s toxicology department and shattered the windows of other buildings. Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Liashko reported that the attack also damaged the cancer ward, as well as intensive care units and operating rooms where doctors performed operations.

The Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital treats up to 18,000 patients annually and offers a wide range of diagnostics, surgeries and cancer treatments. Following the Russian attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Okhmatdyt “one of the most important children’s hospitals not only in Ukraine but also in Europe.”

The hospital was hit on July 8 during a deadly wave of Russian missile attacks on cities across Ukraine. At least 27 people were killed and 82 injured in Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko declared July 9 a day of mourning.

A long story

The history of Ochmadyt begins in 1894 with the opening of the Kyiv Free Hospital for Workers and the Poor, a medical institution funded by businessman and philanthropist Mykola Tereshchenko. After the Bolsheviks seized power in Ukraine in 1921, the Kyiv Free Hospital was transformed into a children’s hospital, which from 1929 worked closely with the Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood – called Ochmatdyt for short.

In 1934, Okhmatdyt merged with the Institute of Youth Health. The structure of the hospital continued to expand in the 1940s, and after World War II it was officially renamed the United Hospital of the Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Childhood “Okhmatdyt”.

Construction of Okhmatdyt’s new hospital buildings began in 2011. After the first phase of renovation, a 26,000-square-meter medical complex was put into operation in December 2017. When the second phase was completed in 2020, President Zelensky personally attended the grand opening.

Office of the President of Ukraine

“Today is a wonderful, fantastic day here. Six new wards have been opened. This will help save the lives of Ukrainian children,” Zelensky said at the time. The hospital, he added, now has “the best technology that exists in the world today.”

As a result of the renovation work, the number of hospital beds in Okhmatdyt increased from 620 to 720 and the number of operating rooms from six to twelve. The hospital’s laboratory also received more modern equipment.

According to Oleksandr Lysytsia, head of the bone marrow transplant department at Okhmatdyt, the new building, which opened in 2020, was damaged in the July 8 attack.

Ochmatdyt in wartime

After Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Okhmatdyt began evacuating patients abroad or to relatively safe regions of Ukraine. But the hospital continued to provide treatment – and began admitting injured children.

Ihor Mirochnyk, the hospital’s chief surgeon, told Ukrainian news channel NV that staff had set up three operating rooms “on the ground floor” because they were afraid to work on the upper floors.

Three-year-old Vova and his mother Olha are housed in the basement of Okhmatdyt

Felipe Dana / AP / Scanpix / LETA

“We started preparations on the eve of the war, although we knew all the risks. We have stockpiled supplies so that we can continue our work without interruption if something happens,” said Okhmatdyt’s medical director Serhii Chernyshuk. Chernyshuk also told reporters that volunteers from all over the world are sending food and medicine to the hospital.

According to Okhmatdyt CEO Volodymyr Zhovnir, the hospital was shelled several times with small arms in the first weeks of the large-scale invasion. On March 5, 2022, a missile fired by Ukrainian air defense exploded over the medical complex, but no one was injured.

On March 16, 2022, rocket debris landed on the balcony of the neonatal surgery department and on the hospital grounds after hitting a nearby building; the blast shattered the windows of the pediatric ward and damaged the ceiling of the neurology ward. Fortunately, no one was injured. Later that month, the sale of an anti-war artwork by British street artist Banksy raised more than $100,000 for Okhmatdyt.

In October 2022, pediatric hematologist Oksana Leontieva was killed in a Russian airstrike while on her way to work in Okhmatdyt, just a mile from the hospital, according to the Washington Post.

The Russian missile attack on Ochmatdyt on July 8 killed at least two adults, one of them a doctor. Another 16 people were injured, including seven children.