An attack on the most vulnerable

Aftermath of the missile attack on the Ohmatdyt childrens hospital. Photo: Kateryna Pryshchepa

On July 8th Russia launched several waves of missile attacks targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including a children hospital, a maternity hospital and residential block in Kyiv. There were also targets in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro and Pokrovsk. The attack was one of the most intense since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Februray 2022 and could still become its deadliest. As of the morning of July 9th, officials have confirmed that 47 people were killed (33 of them in Kyiv), including 5 children, with 190 people injured across the country. The rescue operation in the Shevchenkivskyi district in Kyiv, where a Russian missile destroyed the whole section of a residential building, was completed by the end of the day on July 9th. All the children killed in Kyiv on July 8th were residents of the apartment block. The total number of people killed there is 11. Seven members of the medical staff were killed in the maternity hospital Isida which was also hit by the Russian missile. Ten people were killed and 47 injured in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, and another three people were killed and 12 injured in Dnipro. One more person was killed in Pokrovsk.

The number of Russian strikes and the high number of casualties were the result of the scale of the attack. In total, on July 8th, Russia launched 38 cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine including Kinzhal, Iskander-M, Zircon, Kalibr, X-101 and X-22 variants. The missiles were launched from the ground in the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and from the strategic bomber and missile platform Tu-95. Ukrainian air defence reportedly destroyed 30 of the Russian missiles in the air.

Having heard a series of explosions in the morning of July 8th in Kyiv, I unfortunately witnessed one of the Russian missiles circumventing air defence and hitting the ground in the outskirts of Kyiv. Many of Kyiv’s residents witnessed the missiles hitting the targets in the capital, including the one that hit Ukraine’s biggest children hospital.

The Russian attack which shocked the world the most was the attack on Ukraine’s biggest children’s hospital Okhmatdyt (the hospital for the protection of motherhood and childhood). The hospital is the ultimate authority in Ukraine on treating the most difficult forms of children’s cancer. Its different departments cover all pediatric specializations, including rare diseases and heart conditions. Being a highly specialized clinic, Okhmadyt treated patients from all over Ukraine. At the moment of the attack there were approximately 600 patients and 600 members of the staff present in the hospital. Two people – both adults, were killed and 50 people were injured. This includes at least eight children. When the missile hit the hospital some of its patients had already been evacuated to the bomb shelters, which prevented a higher number of casualties.

Apart from the killed and injured during the attack on the hospital, the lives of patients that received treatment there are still endangered. The attack on the hospital has damaged five of its buildings to varying extents. The toxicology ward where children received hemodialysis was totally destroyed. Due to the damage to the other buildings, all the hospital patients had to be evacuated to different medical facilities in Kyiv and elsewhere. For the first half of the day, dozens of ambulances had been queuing up at the driveway in front of Okhmadyt, waiting to pick up the patients and transport them to different facilities. Some children including cancer patients had been taken home by their families.

Firefighters looking for survivors in one of the buildings of the hospital complex in Kyiv. Photo: Kateryna Pryshchepa

By midday on July 8th, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation declared that the hospital had been damaged due to the actions of Ukraine. This claim does not correspond to the reality on the ground. There are no hospital buildings left undamaged. Natalia, a nurse assistant in the traumatology ward, said that she and her colleagues were literally thrown against the walls by the wave from the explosion. “When we heard the warning of an incoming attack, the ward manager told us to hide in the corridor away from the windows, something which prevented a high number of casualties in our ward. But when the missile hit the ground, the explosion wave just threw us all against the wall. I hurt my ribs,” said Natalia.

Had the air defences shot down the missile it would have exploded in the air and the hospital would have just been damaged by the missile debris. But the character of the damage here indicates a direct missile hit. The scale of the damage indicates as much. It would have had to have been one of the more potent missiles in the Russian arsenal.

Kyiv residents reacted to the attack by showing up in their thousands to help clear the rubble. Others donated water, food, first aid supplies, shovels and bags to collect the garbage. Some had worked so hard that by the end of the day they could barely walk. Many were shocked by what they say in the hospital when they arrived. “We entered one of the rooms on the upper floor and saw a little child covered in blood,” one young man told me. According to Natalia, a few children had been injured by broken glass in their ward. Doctors were there to stitch their wounds on the spot.

While the rescue workers and volunteers had been clearing the rubble and broken glass from the damaged buildings, the hospital personnel had been working on evacuating the surviving equipment and medical supplies. The staff had kept working until roughly nine at night, when another air raid alarm forced people to seek shelter again. The rescue workers returned to work after the air raid ended and by the morning of July 9th authorities reported the end of the rescue operation in the hospital.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced plans to restore the hospital and declared that at least 300 million hryvnia (7.3 million US dollars) would be dedicated to this goal from public funds. However, the authorities will have to decide whether the quick reconstruction of the premises is advisable given the danger of renewed attacks. The Okhmatdyt hospital was damaged as a result of Russian air strikes at the beginning of the full scale invasion in 2022. Back then the damage was on a smaller scale. The plans to protect the most vulnerable of Ukraine’s citizens should, if possible, include the evacuation of key medical facilities to safer areas in Ukraine.

Kateryna Pryshchepa is a Ukrainian journalist and a contributing editor with New Eastern Europe.

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civil protection, Health care, Kyiv, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, War