Parents holding babies walked outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack
\n KYIV
\nRussia blasted the main children\u2019s hospital in Kyiv with a missile in broad daylight on Monday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for months.
\nParents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack. Windows had been smashed and panels ripped off, and hundreds of Kyiv residents were helping to clear debris.
\n\u201cIt was scary. I couldn\u2019t breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby). I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe,\u201d Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters.
\nPresident Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who stopped in Poland before heading off to Washington for a NATO summit, put the death toll at 37, including three children. More than 170 were injured.
\nBut tallies of casualties from the sites of attacks in different regions totalled at least 41. Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Zelenskiy said more than 100 buildings had been damaged, including the children\u2019s hospital and a maternity centre in Kyiv, children\u2019s nurseries and a business centre and homes.
\n\u201cThe Russian terrorists must answer for this,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBeing concerned does not stop terror. Condolences are not a weapon.\u201d
\nThe Interior Ministry said there had also been damage in the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro and two eastern cities.
\nThe government proclaimed a day of mourning on Tuesday for one of the worst air attacks of the war, which it said demonstrated that Ukraine urgently needed an upgrade of its air defences from its Western allies.
\nAir defences shot down 30 of 38 missiles, the air force said.
\nAn online video obtained by Reuters showed a missile falling towards the children\u2019s hospital followed by a large explosion. The location of the video was verified from visible landmarks.
\nThe Security Service of Ukraine identified the missile as an Kh-101 cruise missile.
\nKyiv\u2019s military authorities said 27 people had died in the capital, including three children, and 82 were wounded in the main missile volley and a strike that came two hours later.
\nDamage across the capital
\nKyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was one of the largest of the war, causing damage in seven city districts. The Health Minister said five units of the children\u2019s hospital were damaged and children were evacuated to other facilities.
\nEleven were confirmed dead in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 68 were wounded, regional officials said. Three people were killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the governor said.
\nZelenskiy, addressing a news conference in Warsaw alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, called on Kyiv\u2019s Western allies to give a firm response to the attack.
\n\u201cWe will retaliate against these people, we will deliver a powerful response from our side to Russia, for sure. The question to our partners is: can they respond?\u201d Zelenskiy said.
\nThe attack came a day before leaders of NATO countries were due to begin a three-day summit, with the war in Ukraine one of the focuses.
\nUS President Joe Biden said that Moscow\u2019s deadly missile strikes in Ukraine, including on the children\u2019s hospital in Kyiv, were \u201ca horrific reminder of Russia\u2019s brutality\u201d.
\nIn a statement released by the White House, Biden added that Washington and its NATO allies would be announcing new measures to strengthen Ukraine\u2019s air defences.
\nDiplomats said the United Nations Security Council would meet on Tuesday at the request of Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the United States.
\nThe UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker T\u00fcrk, deplored the attacks, saying: \u201cAmong the victims were Ukraine\u2019s sickest children.\u201d
\nRussia\u2019s Defence Ministry said its forces had launched strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases.
\nMoscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, although its attacks have killed thousands of civilians since it launched its invasion in February 2022.
\nUkraine\u2019s Prosecutor General said he discussed the attacks with International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, adding that his office would be sharing evidence with the ICC.
\nUkraine\u2019s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said Ukraine still lacked enough air defences and urged Kyiv\u2019s allies to supply more systems promptly to protect cities from Russian attacks.
\nAir Force representative Colonel Yuri Ignat said it became more difficult to repel Russian attacks as Moscow\u2019s forces kept enhancing their bombardment tactics.
\n\u201cEnemy missiles are equipped with additional means, including radar and thermal traps,\u201d Ignat wrote on Facebook.
\nThe missiles flew at extremely low altitudes during Monday\u2019s attacks, he said.
\nDTEK, the largest private power producer, said three electricity substations and networks had been damaged in Kyiv.
\nThe power system has already sustained so much damage from targeted Russian air strikes that began in March that electricity cuts have become widespread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parents holding babies walked outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack KYIV Russia blasted the main children\u2019s hospital in Kyiv with a missile in broad daylight on Monday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-417369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n