Ukraine\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital likely took a direct hit from a Russian missile on Monday, a United Nations assessment has found, as NATO agreed to strengthen Kyiv\u2019s air defenses in the wake of the attack. <\/p>\n
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting the hospital in Kyiv and alleged, without evidence, that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile caused the blast. But a UN human rights official said evidence suggested Moscow\u2019s forces were responsible for the deadly strike. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnalysis of the video footage and assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children\u2019s hospital suffered a direct hit rather than receiving damages due to an intercepted weapons system,\u201d Danielle Bell, head of the UN\u2019s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Bell said the attack damaged the intensive care, surgical and oncology wards at Kyiv\u2019s Okhmatdyt hospital, which has been vital in the care of some of the sickest children from across the country, adding that Ukrainian officials have since transferred 600 children to other hospitals. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis terrible attack shows that nowhere is safe in Ukraine,\u201d Bell added. <\/p>\n
Two adults were killed in the strike and 16 others – including seven children – were injured, according to Ukrainian officials, as Russia launched a brazen daytime aerial assault on targets in cities across Ukraine during morning rush hour, killing at least 43 people in total. <\/p>\n
The strikes across Ukraine were \u201cstrongly\u201d condemned by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, while the UN\u2019s human rights chief Volker Turk called for \u201cprompt, thorough and independent investigations\u201d into the attacks. <\/p>\n
The Russian attacks came as NATO leaders gathered in Washington, where the United States and NATO allies agreed to give Ukraine more Patriot batteries and additional systems to strengthen Kyiv\u2019s air defenses, members of the defense alliance said in a joint statement on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden also announced plans to supply new air defenses to Ukraine in a speech opening the NATO summit \u2013 providing much-needed support for the country at a critical juncture in its defense against Russia\u2019s invasion. <\/p>\n
During his speech on Tuesday, Biden vowed that \u201cthe United States will make sure that when we export critical air defense interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line.\u201d <\/p>\n
Images and video from the aftermath of the strike on the Kyiv hospital show children with cancer being treated outside the facility and an injured toddler with blood on his face and arms. <\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s monitoring mission said it was likely that a KH-101 cruise missile launched by Russia struck the children\u2019s hospital. It made the determination \u201cbased on video footage, which shows the technical specification of the type of weapon that was used\u201d and that such footage \u201cshows the weapon directly impacting the hospital rather than being intercepted in the air,\u201d Bell said. <\/p>\n
A military expert who visited the site following the blast said the damage is \u201cconsistent with a direct hit,\u201d according to Bell. <\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Washington on Tuesday that \u201cRussia always knows where its missiles hit. Always.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Russia\u2019s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reiterated Moscow\u2019s denial that it had targeted the children\u2019s hospital. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not bombed the children\u2019s hospital,\u201d Nebenzia said at a special meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) convened following the attack. \u201cIf this had been a Russian strike, there would have been nothing left of the building at all. All the children and most of the adults would have been killed, not wounded.\u201d <\/p>\n
But the US also blamed Russia for the hospital strike. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the UNSC meeting that the Russian \u201cattack makes abundantly clear: Putin is not interested in peace.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kyiv described the strike as a \u201ctargeted attack by Russia,\u201d with the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) saying a Russian long-range cruise missile struck the facility. <\/p>\n
\u201cRelevant evidence has already been found at the scene of the tragedy: in particular, fragments of the rear part of the Kh-101 missile with a serial number and part of the steering wheel of the same missile,\u201d the SBU said. <\/p>\n
SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk vowed the agency would respond to what he said were Russian war crimes. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis retribution will be both legal and moral,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Ukraine\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital likely took a direct hit from a Russian missile on Monday, a United Nations assessment has found, as NATO agreed to strengthen Kyiv\u2019s air defenses in the wake of the attack. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting the hospital in Kyiv and alleged, without evidence, that a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile caused the blast. But <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}