There was a global outrage on Monday after Russian missiles killed at least 33 persons and injured 136 others in Ukraine.
Britain’s foreign minister David Lammy condemned the strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv blamed on Russia as “an appalling attack on Ukrainian civilians.”
Lammy, appointed Britain’s top diplomat last Friday after Labour’s general election victory, added that “The United Kingdom’s support to Ukraine is iron-clad. We must hold those responsible for Putin’s illegal war to account.”
Russia struck cities across Ukraine with a missile barrage that killed three dozen people and ripped open the children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Dozens of volunteers including hospital staff and rescue workers dug through debris from the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward five towns and cities in southern and eastern Ukraine as well as the capital.
Ukrainian officials said 33 people were killed and another 136 wounded in the wave of 38 missiles. Three more were killed by Russian fire in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
The air force said air defence systems had downed 30 projectiles.
UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned the “abominable” Russian strikes, while the body’s chief Antonio Guterres said attacking medical facilities was “particularly shocking,” according to his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
The United States denounced “another savage missile attack on civilians,” while the European Union slammed Moscow for its “ruthless” actions.
France’s foreign ministry called the bombardment of a children’s hospital “barbaric” and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as “abhorrent.”
Kyiv said the children’s hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile with components produced in NATO member countries and announced a day of mourning in the capital.
AFP reports that Russia hit back claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defence systems.
Moscow said its forces had struck their “intended targets,” which it added were only defence industry and military installations.
Medical staff acted quickly to move patients and personnel to the facility’s basement after air raid sirens rang out over Kyiv on Monday.
“For some reason, we always thought that Okhmatdyt was protected,” said a 68-year-old hospital employee, identified simply as Nina.
“We were 100 percent sure that they would not hit here,” she told AFP, describing the frantic rush as staff moved children with IV drips to the bunker.
Officials said the attack had also damaged several residential buildings and an office block in Kyiv where AFP reporters saw cars on fire and shredded trees in charred courtyards.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said three of its electrical substations had been destroyed or damaged in Kyiv. Russian strikes on electricity infrastructure have already halved Ukrainian generation capacity in recent weeks compared to one year ago.
Russian forces have repeatedly targeted the capital with massive barrages since invading Ukraine in February 2022, and the last major attack on Kyiv with drones and missiles was last month.