The collapse of Ukraine’s largest children’s clinic sparks anger against Russia. Russia-Ukraine conflict information

Kyiv, Ukraine – Earth-shattering explosions shook the rental building in Oleksandr on Monday morning, sending dagger-like shards of glass flying.

Hours later, she was still shivering, though it wasn’t the wear and tear of her two-bedroom rental that surprised her.

“We can always get the windows replaced,” he informed Al Jazeera, cigarette in hand and sitting next to his elderly father on a bench similar to a construction site in central Kiev.

It was the demolition of Ukraine’s largest children’s clinic, Okhmadite, a huge complex just meters away from her tenement.

Thousands of children, including those suffering from cancer, undergo treatment at the clinic every generation.

A Russian hypersonic missile on Monday morning targeted the two-story toxicology area at the complex, where children undergo dialysis, officials said.

The roof of the building collapsed, killing at least two clinic workers. It is known that one victim was a physician. Officials said at least 16 people, including seven children, were injured.

“I feel very sad,” said Oleksandra, pointing to the clinic, which was still surrounded by a cloud of dust as bulldozers removed the debris.

“They saved my son there two years ago, and now I see it,” she said, as dozens of volunteers pressed on time to deliver bottled water, food and fruit to children in pick-up vans and buses. .

“They’re kids, just little kids. We see them every day. Some have cancer,” she said.

The attack on the clinic was a part of the Russian barrage.

Moscow fired three rounds of missiles at several Ukrainian cities. At the time of writing, at least 36 people were reported dead and 125 injured, although the death toll is expected to rise.

“There are still some children trapped under the debris,” a rescue aide informed Al Jazeera four hours after the clash.

However a police officer declined to speak and informed this correspondent: “Everyone is alive and well. Please stay away.”

Russia refuses duty

Russia habitually refuses to focus on civilian infrastructure. It claimed that the clinic was destroyed by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

“Statements by the regime in Kiev about an allegedly deliberate missile strike by Russia on civilian targets are absolutely unrealistic,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a comment.

“Numerous photographs and video footage from Kiev undoubtedly confirm the fact of the destruction caused by the fall of a Ukrainian air defense missile launched within the city limits,” it said.

However, military analysts remain adamant that the attack on Okhamadite was planned.

They used a “whole ghost” of missiles supported by Iranian-made Shaheed drones and “attacked during the day to exert moral and psychological pressure,” said Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Common Group. forces.

“They attacked the Okhmadites to hit nerves, to get Ukrainians, Kievites emotional, and to put pressure on their “leaders to consider a Kremlin-proposed plan that would convert Ukraine into Moscow-occupied Ukraine,” he told Al. And could force it to recognize parts of Crimea as parts of Russia. Jazeera.

Ukrainians who endured years of bombing agree that the attack was a mistake.

“They were hits, not mid-air collisions” with air defense missiles, said Serhiy, a building engineer who witnessed the hit at the Artyom Army Plant, which is located a kilometer (0.6 mi) from the Okhmadite clinic.

“The intervals between them were equal – one, two, three, four. I have seen and heard him a lot,” Serhi told Al Jazeera. He is a native of the occupied eastern Russian city of Donetsk, which was captured by Russia-backed separatists in 2014.

Like many Ukrainians, he is generally older in terms of moves and conflicts.

“I have no emotions left,” he said.

He was not able to wait for his mother’s funeral in Donetsk at the peak age, he said, because travel to the city would have become a “one-way ticket”.

The Artem plant once produced missiles and alternative weapons for the Air Forces of Ukraine.

It has crashed several times since a full-scale Russian invasion began in 2022, although most of its production has been relocated and only a handful of employees remain working in construction.

“I should have run,” one of them told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, sitting in the silhouette of an Orthodox Christian chapel across the boulevard from the plant.

“Everything was flying around — sketches, papers, things,” he said, pointing toward the building where firefighters were extinguishing the blaze, which left two additional plumes of light smoke. Clouds were rising, which could be seen far and wide in Kiev.

He said at least one of his colleagues was killed.

Russian missiles ‘difficult to detect and destroy’

A few minutes later, a second quick raid alert sent rescue workers, police and civilians to an underground passage.

Despite the fact that complex Western wind defense programs provide Kiev with protection from numerous Russian missiles and drones, Moscow helps keep its bombing methods “improved”, Ukraine’s wind pressure spokesman noted.

Russia’s missiles are “difficult to detect and destroy,” Yuri Ihnat wrote on Facebook.

On Monday, the missiles were flown at a “super-low altitude” of just 50 meters (165 feet) above the grassland to avoid detection and interception, he said.

For many people in Ukraine, the clinic bombing is a symbol of Russia’s brutality. During the war, now in its third generation, civilian websites including colleges, hospitals, railway stations and bomb shelters were attacked.

“We must hold Russia responsible for its terrorist acts and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin for ordering the attack,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Twitter.

“Whenever there is an attempt to discuss peace with (Putin), Russia responds with attacks on homes and hospitals,” he said, citing a position at the UN Security Council to discuss the Kiev bombing. Starting the meeting.

United States President Joe Biden condemned the bombing, calling it “a terrible reminder of Russia’s brutality.”