Biden condemns ‘Russia’s brutality’ in Ukraine after videos appear to show rocket attack on Kyiv children’s hospital

The United Nations said on Tuesday there was a “high probability” that a children’s hospital in Kyiv was “directly hit by a Russian missile” on Monday. Ukrainian officials accused Russia of hitting the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital with a cruise missile – part of a Wave of strikes during the day in which at least 40 people were killed across the country on Monday.

President Biden also blamed Russia for the attack on the hospital. According to Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, two people were killed in the attack, including a 30-year-old doctor, and 32 others were injured, including eight children.

Biden called the Russian attacks a “horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality” and said it was “critically important that the world continues to stand with Ukraine at this important moment and that we do not ignore Russian aggression.”

The US President said he and UkraineUkraine’s other Western partners will announce “new measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses to help protect their cities and civilians from Russian attacks” at the NATO summit in Washington, DC, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also attend this week.

Russia denies any responsibility for the attack on the hospital and claims – without evidence – that all damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles.

The Ukrainian military said it shot down the majority of the roughly 40 missiles fired by Russia on Monday, but video clips widely shared on social media and analyzed by CBS News appear to show a direct attack on the Kyiv hospital – albeit not with an anti-aircraft missile, but with a Russian cruise missile.

A maternity hospital in the Ukrainian capital was also damaged on Monday. According to the Ukrainian military, seven people were killed there. The victims were “a consequence of the Russian attack,” they said.

There was no mention of a direct missile attack on the maternity ward, and a message posted by Ukrainian emergency services suggested that the damage was likely caused by falling debris from an intercepted missile.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, described Monday’s Russian missile salvo as “one of the most egregious attacks we have seen since the beginning of the large-scale invasion” in February 2022.

In his speech to journalists in Geneva, Bell said of the attack on the children’s hospital that several videos showed “the weapon hitting directly into the hospital.”

“Analysis of the video footage and on-site assessment indicate with a high degree of probability that the children’s hospital suffered a direct hit and was not damaged by an intercepted weapons system,” Bell said.

“This needs to be investigated,” Bell said. She said her team and military experts have assessed the damage at the hospital and spoken to staff, patients’ parents and local residents.

Bell said Russia likely fired a Kh-101 air-to-ground cruise missile armed with about 227 kilograms of explosives from an aircraft.

“The evidence that this was a direct hit is based on video footage showing the specifications of the type of weapon used. It shows that the weapon struck the hospital directly and was not intercepted in mid-air,” Bell said.

CBS News’ own analysis of the widely shared videos also suggests that it was a Kh-101 missile that hit the hospital on Monday. While the impact is obscured by another building in the clips, the missile can clearly be seen flying toward the ground, followed by a flash. CBS News has geolocalized the video and confirmed that it shows the impact on the hospital.

Bell said that at the time of the attack, there were 670 underage patients and more than a thousand medical staff at the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, a specialized facility where families from across the country bring their children for treatment for serious illnesses such as cancer and kidney disease.

CBS News Associate Producer Joanne Stocker contributed to this report.