A children’s hospital has been seriously damaged in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv by Russian strikes, as 33 people were killed across the country in an early morning barrage.
At least 19 people were killed in Kyiv by the rare daytime attack, including two who died at the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital – Ukraine’s biggest paediatrics facility – which sustained major damage during the blast.
The head of the military administration in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih said at least 10 people had been killed there, with three more killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk and one in Dnipro.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is visiting Poland where he signed a security pact, vowed to retaliate.
“Different cities: Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk. More than 40 missiles of various types. Residential buildings, infrastructure and a children’s hospital were damaged,” Mr Zelensky wrote earlier on social media.
Lesia Lysytsia, a doctor at the children’s hospital, told the BBC the moment the missile struck was “like in a film” with a “big light, then an awful sound”.
“One part of the hospital was destroyed and there was a fire in another. It’s really very damaged – maybe 60-70% of the hospital,” she said.
Pictures from the scene showed young children – some with IV drips – sitting outside the hospital as it was evacuated.
Dr Lysytsia said Ohmatdyt is a big hospital which carries out many functions, including cancer treatment and organ transplants.
“Now we are in the process of evacuating patients to the nearest hospital.. [but] many patients are intubated and on ventilators and cannot have contact with other patients or go outside,” she said.
Hospital officials told Ukrainian TV that about 20 children were being treated from the ward which was hit.
In the hours after the initial strike another explosion rocked the area nearby and hundreds of people took shelter in an underpass.
Mr Zelensky said in a social media post that people were trapped under the rubble of the hospital.
“Right now, everyone is helping to clear the rubble – doctors and ordinary people,” the president wrote.
