The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Ukrainian anti-missile fire, not Russia, had hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov provided no evidence to support the assertion, but told reporters: “I insist, we do not conduct strikes on civilian targets.”
Ukrainian authorities say Russia struck Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, the main children’s hospital in Kyiv, with a missile on Monday and rained missiles on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of airstrikes for months.
Peskov, at his daily briefing, was asked how Russia could say it does not attack civilian targets after the tragedy at the hospital.
“I urge you to be guided by the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defence, which absolutely excludes that there were attacks on civilian targets and which states that we are talking about a falling anti-missile system,” he said.
“We continue to insist that we do not attack civilian targets. Strikes are carried out against critical infrastructure facilities, against military targets that are in one way or another related to the military potential of the regime.”
Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that it was a NASAMS surface-to-air missile launched by Ukraine that hit the children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday.
WATCH l Bloodied staff, anguished scream in hospital missile strike aftermath:
A barrage of Russian missile attacks against Kyiv largely destroyed the Ukrainian city’s largest children’s hospital and left other buildings in the city in ruins. Dozens have been killed in the airstrikes that may have been timed to coincide with NATO meetings.
UN Security Council to meet
Many thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the course of the war since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. A much smaller number of civilians have been killed inside Russia and in parts of Ukraine that Russia controls and has claimed as its own.
The Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) presented new evidence on Tuesday it said proved that the hospital had been directly hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.
It shared images of a missile engine fragment it said was found at the site. The SBU also said that analysis of the trajectory and nature of the damage caused prove it was a direct strike.
The Kh-101 that Ukraine says was used is a cruise missile that typically carries a 450-kg explosive warhead.
“All patients from Okhmatdyt were moved to other medical facilities,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We continue our work to increase the defence of our cities and communities against Russian terror. There will be decisions. The world has the required force for that.”
The strike at the children’s hospital led to condemnations from Western leaders, many of whom will be in Washington, D.C., beginning Tuesday for a 75th anniversary NATO summit. Zelenskyy is also expected to attend and encourage alliance members to bolster the country’s missile defence system.
In addition, the deadly airstrike will be the subject of a United Nations Security Council meeting later Tuesday.
LISTEN l ‘Impossible to explain’ how you can’t protect child patients, Kyiv doctor tells CBC:
As It Happens7:42Doctor in Kyiv scrambles to help patients after Russian missile hits children’s hospital
Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital was reduced to rubble after it was hit by a Russian missile. It was part of a wave of strikes Monday that officials say killed at least 36 civilians. Dr. Lesia Lysytsia had to scramble to help her patients. Now she wants people in Russia to understand how painful it’s been to see her patients put in such danger. She spoke with As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong.
Okhmatdyt’s general director, Volodymyr Zhovnir, told reporters at the site that one of their young doctors had died and that the building for dialysis had been completely destroyed. They no longer have an electricity supply, he said.
“At least four buildings of the hospital were partially destroyed,” he said.
Donations began to pour in from the Ukraine business community to support the hospital, with Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, said it would donate 10 million hryvnias ($335,000 Cdn) to aid the hospital’s reconstruction.
Elsewhere in the capital, a woman’s body was recovered from the ruins of a residential building where 12 people were killed, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
