Ukrainians have been observing a day of mourning after a spate of Russian missile attacks killed dozens of civilians on Monday and the search for survivors is ongoing at a devastated children’s hospital.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 38 civilians, including four children, were killed and 190 people were injured in the wave of attacks.
One facility hit was the main paediatric hospital in the capital, Kyiv, where blast debris fell on active open-heart surgery patients.
The roof of the Okhmatdyt hospital’s toxicology department, where children undergo dialysis, also collapsed, Ukrainian officials said, with cancer patients being wheeled onto the streets to escape the carnage.
At least two workers at Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital were killed and 16 people were injured, including seven children, with the search for those trapped under the rubble continuing on Tuesday.
Russia denied attacking the hospital, blaming the damage on fragments of a Ukrainian air defence missile.
Ukrainian officials, however, said they found parts of a Russian cruise missile at the scene.
The strike on the children’s hospital was likely caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile, the head of the United Nations human rights monitoring mission said on Tuesday, citing its own analysis.
“Analysis of the video footage and an assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children’s hospital was directly hit rather than receiving damage from an intercepted weapon system,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
But Bell said that her team, who visited the site on Monday, could not make a final determination.
“Among the victims were Ukraine’s sickest children,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, who is due to address the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva later on Tuesday.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, speaking outside the gutted hospital, said details were still being assessed and more information about the wounded would soon be released.
Ukraine retaliated with a wave of strikes early on Tuesday, deploying dozens of drones in several border regions.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces shot down 38 of the drones, with falling debris setting a power substation and an oil depot on fire.
One man died, two people were injured and several homes were damaged in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, according to its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Russian officials rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by Ukrainian attacks.
