Russian bombs Kyiv children’s hospital, leaving young patients fleeing still hooked up to IVs — with 29 killed in strikes across Ukraine
A Kyiv children’s hospital was badly damaged after Russia rained down missiles on Ukraine as part of a massive daylight barage that killed 29 people, officials said.
Harrowing images from the aftermath show hundreds of people rushing to clear Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital and rescue those inside, with parents seen running from the devastation with their crying infants in tow.
Ten people were killed during the main wave of attacks on Kyiv, including at least two inside the children’s hospital, with about 35 others wounded, officials said.
Sick children attached to IV lines were also seen carried out of the demolished building by doctors, parents and nurses.
One small child with a bald head, apparenty a chemotherapy patient, was seen being comforted by a nurse in a mask — while still hooked up to a drip.
“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby),” Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters. “I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe.”
Kravchenko said her two-month-old baby was unharmed, but the mother did suffer several cuts as she hid in a hospital shelter with her child and husband.
Local residents were seen aiding the effort by forming a line to pass along the debris and clear a path for rescuers.
Her car was also completely buried by the rubble from a destroyed building across the hospital’s main ward.
Images from the rare daytime strike show at least one rooftop from the hospital collapsed as first responders try to remove the debris.
The attack is the deadliest airstrike by Russian forces in months — with more than 40 missiles hitting Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and two other eastern cities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
It came as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow for a two-day visit — his first since Russia sent troops into Ukraine.
Modi was set to have dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be followed by Kremlin talks Tuesday.
About two hours after the first attack, another Russian missile struck a different hospital in Kyiv, killing four more people and injuring three others, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko called the attack on the capital the largest of the war so far.
Another 11 were killed in a second wave of attacks in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy’s hometown, with more than 40 others wounded.
One person was killed in the central city of Dnipro, with three killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk after the missiles struck an industrial facility, the regional governor said.
Zelenskiy condemned the Russian missile barrage and called on the world to help Ukraine fight back the Kremlin’s invasion.
“The whole world must act as decisively as it can to put an end to Russian airstrikes. Murder – this is what Putin brings. Only together we can achieve true peace and security,” he wrote on Telegram.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed its forces had carried out the strikes on Ukrainian aviation bases and military industrial targets.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that its airstrikes have targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure despite such attacks already killing thousands of non-combatants since the war began.
Bridget Brink, the US ambassador to Kyiv, said Russia’s latest attack would only embolden world leaders to provide more aid to Ukraine ahead of a three-day NATO summit that Zelenskiy is expected to attend.
“This callous aggression – a total disregard for human life, jeopardizing European & Transatlantic security – is why leaders will make significant security commitments to Ukraine this week,” Brink wrote on X.
— With Post wires.
