There is a wave of mourning in Kiev as rescue teams clear piles of debris after a children’s health facility was struck by a Russian missile

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Rescuers searched for more dead and injured in the debris of a children’s health facility Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, citing incoming Russian missiles. slammed into capacity And cities across the country are awash in daylight. Officials said that the death toll in this incident has increased to 42.

Zelensky said on the social platform

It was Russia’s heaviest bombardment of Kiev in nearly four months and one of the deadliest. war, affecting seven of the city’s 10 districts. The attack on the Okhamadite children’s health facility, which disrupted open-heart surgeries and forced young cancer patients to seek their treatment outside, sparked worldwide outrage.

Volodymyr Zhovnir, director general of Okhmadite, said on Tuesday that the ten-story health facility, Ukraine’s largest medical facility for children, was caring for about 670 patients on the date of the attack. The missile crashed into the two-story wing of the health facility.

“The building where we did dialysis for children suffering from kidney failure or acute intoxication is completely ruined,” he advised Newshound, estimating the total damage to the health facility at $2.5 million. .

Danielle Bell, head of the UN group that monitors human rights violations in Ukraine, said at least two people were killed and about 50 people, including seven children, were injured in hospital. He said casualties would have been much higher had the victims not been taken to the bunker when the wind raid sirens first sounded.

Zhovnir said one of the two people killed at the hospital was a female doctor who took the children to a shelter and then went back to check that no one was left behind.

Oleh Holubchenko, a pediatrician at the health facility, was treating a child with congenital facial defects. Irrespective of the blast of the air sirens, he and his team decided to continue the operation. “We couldn’t stop halfway,” he told The Related Press.

When the missile fell, the shock wave threw it around the moving theatre. He had a minor accident due to being hit by shrapnel and the child’s ventilator got a hole. The newborn, still without a wound, had to be taken to another Kyiv health facility where they completed surgery.

The government was working to revive the health facility’s energy and H2O supply as Kiev city directors declared a legitimate past of mourning on Tuesday. Holiday programs in the capital were stopped and flags were lowered.

Russia refused to take responsibility for the attack on the health facility, and insisted that it does not attack civilian targets in Ukraine, despite ample evidence, including relevant press reporting.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that position, pointing to Russian Security Ministry comments on Tuesday that blamed a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile for partially destroying the health facility.

Bell, the top UN group, rejected that argument. He said a review of video photographs and findings on the website indicated that the health facility “suffered a direct hit rather than damage caused by a jammed weapons system.”

Bell said the hospital may have been attacked by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. Ukrainian officials said the same.

Since last month, Moscow has been developing technologies to fracture through Ukraine’s wind defenses, said Alexander Kovalenko, a military analyst at Resistance, a non-governmental information group.

He said Russia on Monday destroyed a huge array of missiles of different types, which when combined together left Ukrainian air defense forces unable to intercept them.

“They have been experimenting with different types of rockets since 2023 to find the right combination to break our air defense algorithms,” he told the AP.

The Russian military has also programmed the missiles to move in mid-air, according to Kovalenko, who said that during Monday’s attack, one missile first appeared to be heading west, but later turned back to hit Kiev. Gone, Kovalenko said.

The bodies of three more people were found under the debris of a residential structure in Kiev’s Shevchenkivskyi district on Tuesday, officials said, bringing the death toll from the single structure to ten.

The Russian attack occurred on the eve of Monday NATO height in Washington Where the coalition countries are expected to contract new military and economic backup for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the President of Russia used to be Vladimir Putin Webhosting of India’s top minister Narendra Modi in Moscow. Brandnew Delhi’s importance as a major trading partner has increased since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

Zelensky was deeply critical of Modi’s talks late on Monday, saying: “To see the leader of the world’s largest democracy embrace the world’s bloodiest criminal in Moscow is a major disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts. ” Day.”

Meanwhile, Russian military and regional officials said Tuesday that Ukrainian drones targeted six Russian regions in a single day, in what appears to be a larger than usual air attack by Kiev’s forces.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said wind defense systems in five Russian southern and western regions “destroyed and intercepted” a total of 38 Ukrainian drones.

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Jamie Keaton in Geneva contributed.

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