Despite mounting evidence, Russia denies blame for deadly strike on Kyiv children’s hospital

A bombed out section of the children's hospital in Kyiv. Photo by NEE's contributing editor Kateryna Pryshchepa.

Russia’s July 8th attack on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital is a stark reminder of the horrific brutality that the Kremlin unleashed on Ukraine with its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Almost more appalling, however, is how Russia and its officials have sought to deny their culpability in the tragedy that killed 33 people, including five children.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Russian officials began to blame Ukraine for the strike on the hospital –– a reoccurring modus operandi of Russia to muddy the waters regarding the defence and international support for Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, stated for example that “I urge you to be guided by the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defence, which absolutely excludes that there were attacks on civilian targets and which states that we are talking about a falling anti-missile system.”

Similar rhetoric appeared in the hours and days after the strike on X (formerly Twitter), as well as Russian-language Telegram channels and other social media sites, blaming a falling Ukrainian, American-provided air defence missile for the tragedy.

Ukraine’s security services reported that the attack was a direct Russian strike, citing fragments of a Kh-101 missile, its serial number and parts of its guidance system, refuting Moscow’s claims and attempts to place the blame on Ukraine.

For the witnesses of the tragedy, however, there is little doubt as to the perpetrator of this horrendous war crime.

Valentina, a doctor operating on a ten-year-old girl during the time of the attack told the Moscow Times that there were two strikes. Referring to the hospital complex, she stated, “While the operation was going on, one of the missiles struck here.” After the first explosion, Valentina and her team of doctors immediately started to evacuate the child, finishing the surgery prematurely, albeit successfully.

“We had taken the child – the girl – and we were going and another shot hit as we were evacuating,” Valentina recalled in the minutes after the attack, pointing to the ICU and oncology building directly hit by the Russian missile.

The United Nations and independent assessments tell a story similar to the experiences of Valentina.

The United Nations assessment aligns with weapons experts’ analysis. As reported by CNN and citing a UN official, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile likely hit the children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday, June 8th.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, asserted that “analysis of the video footage and assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children’s hospital suffered a direct hit rather than receiving damages due to an intercepted weapons system.”

Similarly, the internationally recognized open-source research and investigative journalism group Bellingcat published the results of their investigation into the attack on June 9th. Using videos of the missile striking the hospital, a 3D model of the missile and photos of the missile debris, Bellingcat was able to establish that it was indeed a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile that struck the Okhmatdyt hospital.

For the eyewitnesses and victims of the tragedy, there is little debate as to who is responsible for the attack. Rescuers and volunteers on site on July 8th grieving the unimaginable horror and digging through the rubble to find survivors held Russia completely responsible for the attack, as well as the boundless suffering throughout all of Ukraine over the last two and a half years.

The Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital attack was not the first Russian attack on a healthcare facility since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022. A World Healthcare Organization report has confirmed 1,682 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine, leading to 128 deaths and 288 injuries among medical personnel and patients in recent years.

Most memorable is likely the airstrike on the Mariupol Maternity Hospital No. 3 on March 9th 2022, which killed four people and injured many more.

While the Ukrainian authorities’ final investigation of the June 8th Okhmatdyt attack, as well as those of other European countries, are very likely to find Russia and its military responsible for this war crime, a member and pilot of the Russian 22nd Heavy Bomber Division, the brigade allegedly responsible for the attack, has also provided information on the strike and those who perpetrated it, further adding to the arsenal of evidence

Though Russia’s claims that a Ukrainian air defence missile was the cause of the incident are likely to mostly fall on deaf ears, for now, there are unlikely to be any material political or legal repercussions for Russia.

Instead, the evidence and investigations – Ukrainian and those of international organizations – will supplement the growing accrual of war crimes committed by Russia in and against Ukraine throughout the war.

For the victims and their families, however, justice will only come through vengeance on the battlefield or the criminal prosecution of those who ordered and executed the June 8th hospital attack.

Joshua R. Kroeker is an independent researcher, founder of the boutique analytic firm Reaktion Group, an analyst at the political analysis project R.Politik, and an editor at RANE. He holds degrees from the University of British Columbia in Canada, Heidelberg University in Germany and St Petersburg State University, Russia. @jrkroeker on Twitter.

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civil protection, hospital, Kyiv, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine at war, United Nations, war crimes