A massive Russian missile attack has killed at least 28 people and injured around 100 across Ukraine, including one that hit a children’s hospital in Kiev, authorities said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian military daylight barrages targeted five Ukrainian cities, including the capital, firing more than 40 missiles of different types and destroying apartments and civil infrastructure.
Seven people were killed in Kiev, authorities said.
“It is now vital that the world does not remain silent and that everyone knows what kind of country Russia is and what it is doing,” the president said on social media.
Western leaders, who have supported Ukraine in the war, are holding a three-day NATO summit in Washington starting on Tuesday.
They will consider how to reassure Ukraine of the Alliance’s unwavering support and give Ukrainians hope that their country can overcome Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
At Okhmadit Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, rescuers search for people under the rubble of the facility’s partially collapsed two-storey building.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least 16 people were injured, seven of them children.
Massive Russian missile attack across Ukraine kills at least 20 people, wounds more than 50 (AP)
Blood was splattered on the floor of one room. Authorities said the intensive care unit, operating theatre and oncology department were all affected.
Medical personnel and locals searched for children and medical workers. Volunteers lined up, passing bricks and other debris to each other.
New air raid warnings spark panic after attacks (AP)
The attacks forced the hospital to close and be evacuated, with some mothers leaving the hospital with their children on their backs, while others waited in the courtyard with their children while the doctor’s phone rang and went unanswered.
A few hours after the first attack, air raid sirens sounded again, and many mothers rushed with their children to the hospital shelter.
Mothers cradled bandaged children in their arms and medical workers carried them on trolleys through the shelter’s dark corridors, guided by torchlight, as volunteers handed out sweets to try to calm the children.
Witnesses reacted with shock, anger and disbelief. (AP)
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack was successful and targeted Ukrainian defense facilities and a military airbase. It denied that civilian targets were intended and said, without providing evidence, that photos from Kiev showed the damage was caused by Ukrainian air defense missiles.
From the early days of the now-three-year-old war, Russian officials have repeatedly insisted that Moscow’s forces have never attacked Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, despite statements from authorities in Kiev and reports on the ground by The Associated Press.
Several children were injured. (AP)
About three hours after the first attack, a further missile struck Kiev, partially destroying a civilian medical centre, where four people were killed, according to the Ukrainian emergency services.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the daytime attack included one of Russia’s most advanced weapons, the Kinzhal hypersonic missile, which travels at 10 times the speed of sound, making it difficult to intercept.
The explosion shook buildings across the city. Authorities said an entire block of high-rise residential buildings was destroyed in one district of Kiev. Energy company DTEK said three electricity substations in two districts of Kiev were damaged or destroyed.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said the attack took place at a time when many people were on the streets.
