The body of a missing boy has been retrieved from the rubble of an apartment block in Kiev that was destroyed in a Russian missile attack, the city’s civil defence department said on Tuesday.
At least 27 people died in the devastating Russian airstrikes on Kiev on Monday, including four children and 117 people were injured. There were further casualties in the Dnipropetrovsk region in the south. In total, Ukraine reported at least 37 deaths and 170 injuries in the latest attacks.
Tuesday is set to be a day of mourning in Kiev after a missile hit one of Ukraine’s most important paediatric hospitals in the capital. Hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers were still searching for people trapped in the rubble. Children suffering from cancer, who had been rescued, were sitting on their mothers’ laps in the street attached to drips. Two adults, including a doctor, were killed in the hospital.
Ukraine said that the attack was targeted, as video footage shows a cruise missile approaching the building unhindered. However, the Russian military claimed the impact was caused by the mistaken use of a Ukrainian air defence missile, without providing evidence.
Seven people were also killed in a large residential building near the hospital, including three children. Two people died in an industrial plant. Unofficial reports indicated there had been attacks on an armaments company. Nine people were killed in another partially destroyed hospital, and seven people were killed in a business centre.
The UN Security Council in New York is set to discuss the devastating attack. However, as a permanent member of the UN’s highest body, Russia has the right of veto, so Moscow is not expected to be condemned.
Ukraine has been trying to repel a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022 and depends largely on Western support. Kiev repeatedly urges its allies to provide even more modern air defence systems.
