Putin’s forces deliberately targeted kids, Kyiv officials said.
KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces struck a children's hospital in Kyiv, as at least 20 people were killed Monday morning during a large missile assault on the Ukrainian capital.
“Russian terrorists again massively attacked Ukraine with missiles. Different cities were targeted: Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. "More than 40 missiles of different types. Residential buildings, infrastructure and a children's hospital were damaged.”
The barrage largely destroyed a newly reconstructed ward of Okhmatdyt, one of the oldest children’s hospitals in Kyiv. Putin's military is continuing a full-scale invasion of Ukraine which it launched back in February 2022.
Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskyy’s office, added that the Russians deliberately targeted the hospital. “They purposefully attacked the children today,” Yermak said in a Telegram post Monday.
In Kyiv, 20 people died as a result of the Russian attack, and another 61 people were injured.
Debris and missiles caused massive destruction and fires in eight districts of Kyiv, Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said in a statement.
“Patients of the children’s hospital are being evacuated in other hospitals of Kyiv,” the city Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Overall, 31 people died and another 125 were injured during the widespread attack across the country, according to figures from Ukraine's interior ministry.
"Today, the country felt not fear, but even more rage and hatred. There will be an answer for terror against civilians and children," he added.
"This is Russia's willingness for negotiations and desire of peace," German ambassador to Kyiv Martin Jaeger said.
Later the same day, as Kyivans rushed to get kids trapped in a basement beneath the destroyed ward out from under the rubble, Russia attacked Kyiv again, damaging another medical center and killing four more people, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported.
Klitschko said that there were 16 people wounded, and seven of them were children. Besides hospitals, a whole apartment block collapsed in one of the districts of Kyiv.
"Rescuers can hear voices coming from under the rubble," Klitschko said.
Allied condemnation of the attack was swift.
Maia Sandu, president of Moldova, denounced the Russian strike on a children's hospital. "Killing children is not an ideology, geopolitics or political debate. It is about innocent children, about the bombs that hit the hospital, where the little one is fighting cancer," Sandu said in a statement.
In a post on X, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he was “struck by the images of the bombings in Kyiv, in which a children's hospital was also hit.”
“War crimes that must be condemned by the entire international community. The government will continue to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and its people," he wrote.
"Ukraine needs air defence now. All responsible for Russian war crimes will be held to account," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský hit out at Viktor Orbán's so-called peace mission to Russia in his post on X.
"While the useful idiots are rambling about peace with Putin, he is sending missiles to a children's hospital. I'm currently heading to the NATO summit to push for a long-term strategy to contain Russia. One cannot yield to aggression," Lipavský said.
This story has been updated.
Elena Giordano contributed to this report.
