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Russia rained missiles down on cities across Ukraine, badly damaging Kyiv’s main children’s hospital in the deadliest air strike in months. [Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters]Published On 8 Jul 20248 Jul 2024
At least 31 people have been killed and 112 wounded across Ukraine in a barrage of Russian missile attacks – the deadliest in months.
A missile smashed into a children’s hospital in the capital, Kyiv, on Monday, trapping victims under rubble. Dozens of volunteers, doctors and rescue workers dug through debris of a part of Okhmatdyt National Children’s Specialised Hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare daytime bombardment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces fired more than 40 missiles at five cities, mainly in the south and east of the country as well as Kyiv.
The attacks came as Zelenskyy visited Warsaw before heading to the NATO summit in Washington, DC, where he was expected to appeal for more military support from the country’s allies.
Natalia Svidler, 40, was in the hospital at the time of the strike with her two-year-old son as he awaits surgery this week.
“The nurses told us to go down to the basement. After a while, we heard a loud rumble, and then the ceiling in the basement collapsed a little,” she told the AFP news agency at the scene.
“Everyone got very scared, of course. Everyone started screaming and running,” she said.
Ukrainian energy operator DTEK said three electrical substations had been destroyed or damaged in the attack, the latest in a series of strikes that have halved the country’s energy generation capacity in recent months.
In Zelenskyy’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, which has been repeatedly targeted by Russian bombardment, the strikes killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 40, officials said.
There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Kremlin, but it insists its forces do not target civilian infrastructure.