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Parts of the building were flattened, dust was flying, windows were broken, children were huddled around their parents, and dozens of rescue workers, doctors, soldiers and civilians were helping. This is what the Children’s Hospital in Kiev looked like after it was hit by a Russian missile, according to Reuters. In addition to the metropolis, the massive attack also hit at least five other cities in central and eastern Ukraine, killing more than 30 people and injuring 150.
photo: TASR/AP, Yevgeny Maloletka
A paramedic holds the hand of a child in front of the Ochmadiyt Children’s Hospital after a Russian missile attack in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, Monday, July 8, 2024. Russian forces carried out a massive missile attack on several Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kiev, on Monday.
Seconds after a Russian missile struck a medical facility in Kiev that specializes in treating pediatric patients, Svetlana Kravchenko ran to her two-month-old son, who was being treated at the hospital. She covered the baby with a cloth to protect him from the dust flying in the air.
“It was terrible. I tried to cover him with a cloth so that he could breathe,” the 33-year-old woman said with a trembling voice, while around her rescuers searched for survivors in the rubble of the building. Kravchenko held the little child tightly in her arms, while her husband Vladimir watched it all. Their car, which was parked next to the destroyed building, was buried under the rubble. Fortunately, the whole family escaped with only scrapes and bruises.
“If we were in the car, we would no longer exist,” Kravchenko said, stroking his wife’s face to calm her, according to Reuters.
Ochmatdyt Hospital is well-known in Ukraine and abroad for its children’s care facilities, performing 10,000 surgeries a year, according to Reuters. It can care for up to 600 pediatric patients at a time.
Ukraine’s secret service, the SBU, said at least two people were killed and 16 others were injured. Authorities are investigating the incident as a war crime. However, rescuers were concerned that more victims could be trapped in the rubble of the hospital, so they continued to search the ruins at least eight hours after the attack.
According to the SBU, the missile, a Ch-101 level-flight missile, hit the hospital at around 10:00 local time (09:00 CET). The impact flattened most of the two-storey building of the toxicology laboratory and blew out windows on the 11th floor of the main building. Video footage verified by Reuters showed the missile taking a steep flight trajectory and hitting the hospital directly.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the attack in the main building damaged the intensive care unit, operating rooms and oncology department. At the time of the intervention, doctors were performing heart surgery on three patients, and the explosion fragments contaminated their open chest cavities, the Associated Press wrote, referring to Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashek. The minister said that during the attack the hospital lost water, light and oxygen, and patients were transferred to other facilities.
After the attack, an elderly doctor with a bandage on her head and a bloodstained white coat walked helplessly through the medical facility. Glass cracked beneath her feet, Reuters reported from the scene. Shivering mothers clung to their babies, while older children, some of them unaccompanied, sat in the courtyard to recover from the shock. Dozens of rescue workers, soldiers and civilians formed a human chain to clear the rubble brick by brick.
Toxicologist Jevhenija Rochvarhová, 55, said all her closest colleagues were still alive. However, she was unsure about the fate of those who might have been on higher floors during the strike. Asked if she felt angry, she said no.
“Maybe it’s exhaustion. And a very deep sadness. I just wish this wouldn’t happen,” she told Reuters.
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