Ukraine: Day of mourning in kyiv as death toll rises

The Ukrainian capital observes a day of mourning on Tuesday following Russian strikes that left more than 30 people dead and devastated the country. the largest pediatric hospital in the country, a toll that could rise as research continues in the rubble.

The attack on the Okhmatdyt hospital has shocked the country and Ukraine's allies, which have been suffering Russian bombing for more than two years.

President Volodymyr Zelensky reported in the morning nearly forty deaths throughout the country, which suffered a massive attack the day before involving forty Russian missiles.

Ukraine, whose energy infrastructure is already ravaged, continues to demand from its Western allies more means of anti-aircraft defense.

At least 31 people, including four children, were killed in Kiev, where Russian missiles and their debris struck, in addition to the hospital, a private clinic and apartment buildings in several neighborhoods.

On Tuesday morning, five bodies were pulled out of the rubble of a residential building in the Syrets district (west), according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, bringing the total number of people killed in this building to 12. Research continues there

Seven people – five caregivers and two patients – died in a bombing of the Adonis private clinic in the east of the city.

The Okhmatidyt children's hospital destroyed by a Russian strike, July 8, 2024 in kyiv, Ukraine © AFP – Roman PILIPEY

In Okhmatdyt, two adults, including a female doctor and a visitor, were killed and 32 injured, authorities said after rescue operations ended in the morning.

Of around 630 patients treated there, 94 were transferred to other hospitals in the capital, more than 465 had to return home and 68 remained in the buildings which were not were affected by the attack, the Health Ministry said.

– “Direct fire” –

The town hall has declared a day of mourning in the capital and the flags were put at half-mast.

Apartment buildings destroyed in kyiv by missile strikes, July 8, 2024 © AFP – Anatolii STEPANOV

“On this day of mourning for the innocent victims of our capital and other cities of Ukraine, I bow with all the Ukrainian people,” declared the commander in head of the Ukrainian armed forces Oleksandr Syrsky.

He denounced a Russian “war crime” which “shocked the world with its cruelty” and which “we, the Ukrainian soldiers, will never forgive”.

As of Tuesday, 64 victims of the strikes remain hospitalized in kyiv, 28 others in Kryvyi Rig, the president's hometown in the south-central part of the country, and six others in Dnipro, a large city in the center-east, listed Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine said the strike on the pediatric hospital was carried out with a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile fired from a bomber.

Ukraine: positions of military forces © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Cléa PECULIER

The Kremlin, which has systematically denied any crime or blunder since the start of its invasion, has blamed Ukrainian air defense, ensuring, as always, that it will never “hit civilian targets”.

The representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, Danielle Bell, considered it “very likely” that the hospital was affected by “a direct fire” of a Russian missile, also evoking the KH-101 type projectile.

“Analysis of video footage and assessment at the incident site indicate that it is highly likely that the Children's Hospital suffered a direct hit rather than damage from an intercepted weapon system.” , declared Ms. Bell during a press briefing in Geneva.

Rescue teams in front of a building and a kindergarten destroyed by a Russian strike, July 8, 2024 in kyiv, Ukraine © AFP – Anatolii STEPANOV

Mr. Zelensky, who is due to participate in an important NATO summit in Washington, for his part demanded from the West a “stronger response” to Russia.

A meeting emergency meeting of the UN Security Council is also planned for Tuesday, at the request of the Ukrainian president.

Joe Biden denounced Russia's “brutality” on Monday , promising “new measures to strengthen Ukraine's air defense.”

Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight from Monday to Tuesday: two people were injured in the Kherson region and three others in the Zaporizhia region, both located in the South.

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