Russian Missiles Kill 33, Injure 136  in Ukraine

Russian missiles released have reportedly killed at least 33 persons and injured 136 others in Ukraine children hospital.

Britain’s foreign minister David Lammy condemned the strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv blamed on Russia as “an appalling attack on Ukrainian civilians.”

Lammy, added that “The United Kingdom’s support to Ukraine is iron-clad. We must hold those responsible for Putin’s illegal war to account.”

Russia struck cities across Ukraine with a missile barrage that killed three dozen people and ripped open the children’s hospital in Kyiv.

Dozens of volunteers including hospital staff and rescue workers dug through debris from the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward five towns and cities in southern and eastern Ukraine as well as the capital.

Ukrainian officials said 33 people were killed and another 136 wounded in the wave of 38 missiles. Three more were killed by Russian fire in Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

The air force said air defence systems had downed 30 projectiles.

UN rights chief Volker Turk condemned the “abominable” Russian strikes, while the body’s chief Antonio Guterres said attacking medical facilities was “particularly shocking,” according to his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

The United States denounced “another savage missile attack on civilians,” while the European Union slammed Moscow for its “ruthless” actions.

France’s foreign ministry called the bombardment of a children’s hospital “barbaric” and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as “abhorrent.”

Kyiv said the children’s hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile with components produced in NATO member countries and announced a day of mourning in the capital.

Medical staff acted quickly to move patients and personnel to the facility’s basement after air raid sirens rang out over Kyiv on Monday.

Officials said the attack had also damaged several residential buildings and an office block in Kyiv where AFP reporters saw cars on fire and shredded trees in charred courtyards.