Kyiv, Ukraine
cnn
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A Russian missile collision partially destroyed a children’s medical institution in Kiev on Monday, sending terrified patients and their families fleeing for their lives as authorities fear more of the population could be trapped under the debris. Is.
Moscow launched airstrikes in broad daylight on cities across Ukraine, killing at least 31 people and injuring 125 others, according to Ukraine’s crisis provider.
In an update on Telegram, the crisis provider said the original figure included the number of dead and injured in the capital, which now stands at 20 dead and 61 others injured. Two people were killed and at least 10 were injured in clashes at the Okhmadite Medical Institute in Kiev.
The facility is Ukraine’s largest children’s scientific center and has been vital in serving some of the sickest children across the country. According to Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, each year, about 7,000 surgeries – including treatments for cancer and hematological diseases – are performed at the medical institution.
Video from the scene showed volunteers rushing to sift through debris after seeing smoke billowing from the medical facility, along with police and security services, as groups of staff described how they tried to get children to safety after the attack . Ukraine’s fitness minister Viktor Lyashko said intensive care equipment, oncology sections and surgery equipment were damaged.
“The main task here is to pull people out of the debris and provide assistance to those we can reach, because we have already evacuated all the people,” he said in a Telegram post.
These attacks were part of an extraordinary incendiary bombardment of Ukrainian towns, some of which are densely populated fields far from the entrances. This comes an era when US President Joe Biden is hosting a very powerful NATO summit in Washington, where fresh announcements are expected on the alliance’s military, political and financial support to Kiev.
Russia’s Security Ministry claimed on Monday that Moscow had attacked “Ukraine’s military industrial facilities and air bases of the Ukrainian Armed Forces” using long-range, high-precision guns.
Natalia Sardudinova, a senior governess, described the day the clash broke out at the medical institution and declared that “It was scary, but we survived.”
“It was a loud noise, the windows were rattling,” he told CNN. “As soon as the alarm went off, the children were taken out into the corridor.”
He said that two children were in the theaters working on the day of the explosion, and both were transferred to a safe haven in the basement after their procedures were completed.
“Everything was in smoke, there was no air to breathe. The doctor was hit by shrapnel. Windows and doors were blown out. A hospital nurse was seriously injured,” Sardudinova said. “My hands are still shaking. They don’t let anyone in now, they are afraid it will collapse.”
Yulia Vasilenko, the mother of an 11-year-old cancer patient at the hospital, said her son Denis was thrown out after the clash.
“My son is taking painkillers. He has cancer. He has been without medicine for half a day. He was brought down the stairs from the third floor. There was smoke (and) heavy dust,” she said.
Irina Filimonova, senior governess at the department of pediatric urology, told CNN that a 2-year-old boy was undergoing surgery when the clash occurred.
“The lights went out, everything went out. We took out the equipment shining our torches. Everything was ready quickly,” Filimonova said. “The child was brought down (to the shelter). I immediately ran to help remove the debris. Some of my nursing colleagues who worked in the operation theater and some doctors were cut by shards of glass. Our department was destroyed.”
Another working theater governess, Oksana Mosychuk, said she took refuge in the crisis room when the explosion shook the building. Additionally, the scientific team had to extinguish a fire in their section, which included a working desk that was on fire, he added.
“Fortunately, everyone is alive. One of our colleagues was seriously injured, suffering multiple lacerations and shrapnel wounds and was taken away by ambulance. I also got minor shrapnel injuries, but I am fine. It was very scary. I was scared for the children,” she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Twitter that the exact number of casualties in the hospital was not yet known and that “there are people under the debris” but that everyone from doctors to local citizens sunbathing were helping. Particles after the clash.
“Appartment buildings, infrastructure and a children’s hospital have been damaged. All services are engaged in rescuing as many people as possible,” Zelensky wrote in a post on X.
The bombings targeted the capital Kiev as well as targets in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Zelensky called for an upcoming UN Security Council meeting, vowing to retaliate against Monday’s moves.
Ukraine neutralized 30 of the 38 missiles fired by Russia during its attack on Monday, the commander of the Ukrainian wind drive said in a statement.
Mykola Oleshchuk also said that the Russian military destroyed ballistic, cruise, guided and air-launched ballistic missiles in the strikes.
Ukrainian security provider said a cruise missile was used to attack Kiev’s Okhmadite Medical Institute.
In response to Monday’s bombing, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustam Umerov said the country’s infrastructure was targeted by four batches of Kalibr cruise missiles and Kinzhal aero ballistic missiles launched from Russia’s Volgograd pocket.
In a statement, Umerov appealed for additional air defense systems to aid the war-torn nation. Zelensky has several times asked the West to provide additional air protection technologies to provide greater protection to its cities. Finally, he praised Biden for prioritizing the supply of air defense systems, following which the two presidents signed a security note between their countries on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.
Umerov said Monday that Kiev is “working to ensure that the systems promised by our partners reach Ukraine as soon as possible.”
Air sirens continued to wail in Kiev afterward, as CNN video showed the population outside the hospital, carrying children on stretchers to shelters to safety.
Ratings of volunteers came and donated much-needed supplies to the medical institute, including water, food, medicine and diapers.
Several EU countries condemned the attacks and France described them as “barbaric” while Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer said attacking innocent children was “the most despicable act”.
The French Foreign Ministry noted in a comment that these steps “should add the directly and deliberately barbaric acts committed in a children’s hospital to the list of war crimes for which Russia will be held accountable.”
According to the Global Condition Group, there were more than 1,600 cases of major gun attacks affecting scientific facilities in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, with 141 people killed in these attacks.
Last December, 12 pregnant women and 4 newborns were released from a maternity hospital in Dnipro that was extensively damaged in an airstrike. So far, the bombing of a maternity and children’s medical institution in Mariupol, which is less than the current extent of Russian troops approaching the border, has drawn global condemnation.
This story has been updated with supplemental data.