Russians Bomb Kid’s Hospital in Kyiv: Details From the Scene

On July 8, Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine with dozens of different types of ballistic and cruise missiles. In total, more than 30 people were killed, 22of them in Kyiv.

The Russians hit the largest kid’s hospital in Ukraine and Europe - Okhmatdyt, where hundreds of children are treated. The building where the children receive dialysis was destroyed. Kyiv Post reports on the war crime from the scene of the destruction.

Medical staff and children were trapped under the rubble, and both small patients and doctors suffered from broken windows. The institution, where about 7,000 complex operations are performed annually, diagnostics and treatment of hematological diseases, and bone marrow transplants for sick children, has stopped its work.

Olha, a pharmacist, was working in Okhmatdyt at the time of the explosion.

“When there was the first explosion, we took the children to the dining room, and when the second one suddenly hit strongly, we took people to the bomb shelter. The ceiling collapsed, and the glass shattered. We lowered the children into the bomb shelter, and I ran to help the wounded. These were various injuries. Arms, legs, fractures, almost amputation of a finger; the head of one woman was severely injured,” Olha said.

However, hundreds of Ukrainians from the nearest streets – office workers, shop assistants, students, pensioners, doctors – immediately came together in the first minutes of the disaster and began to help emergency services sort out the rubble and evacuate seriously ill children.

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From time to time, an alarm sounds, and many people run for cover, but then they continue.

“Everyone was quickly provided with emergency assistance, and we started sorting out the rubble so that heavy equipment could drive up and work. There is nowhere to stand; everyone lined up to take out bricks, and this is very motivating,” Yevhen, one of the volunteers, said. 

Meanwhile, the analysis of rubble continues. According to the Security Service of Ukraine, the Russians deliberately attacked the hospital with an X-101 cruise missile; parts of it have already been found on the hospital’s territory.