A barrage of Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities Monday, killing at least 36 people and injuring more than 149, and destroying a large children’s hospital in Kyiv, the state emergency service said.
KYIV and LVIV, Ukraine — A barrage of Russian missiles hit Ukrainian cities Monday, killing at least 36 people and injuring more than 149, and destroying a large children’s hospital in Kyiv, the state emergency service said.
“We thought this was our bastion of security, that this couldn’t happen here,” Khrystyna Korvach, a 29-year-old anesthesiologist at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, told NPR. “But it didn’t turn out that way. Why? Because Russia wants to kill us all.”
At least 22 people, including two children, were killed in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and another 82 injured, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. There were more casualties in central and eastern Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian officials said the Russian military used fast-moving Kinzhal ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in the attacks, which came a day before the NATO summit in Washington, D.C.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces were responding to the “Kyiv regime’s attempts to damage Russian economic and energy facilities” and used long-range weapons to hit “military industrial facilities of Ukraine and air bases of the Ukrainian armed forces.” Russia denied hitting civilian targets and accused Ukraine of “hysterics” before the NATO summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and said Russian President Vladimir Putin must be held accountable.
“We would like to see greater resolve in our partners and hear resolute responses to these attacks,” Zelenskyy said in Warsaw, where he stopped on his way to the NATO summit.
