Russian Strikes Ukrainian Cities, Kills 31

A Russian missile strike on Monday partially destroyed a children’s hospital in Kyiv, forcing terrified patients and their families to flee for their lives.

Eko Hot Blog reports that officials fear more people could be trapped beneath the rubble.

Moscow launched a brazen daytime aerial assault on targets in cities across Ukraine during the morning rush hour, killing at least 31 people and injuring 125 others, according to Ukraine’s emergency service.

In an update on Telegram, the emergency service reported that 20 people were killed and 61 others injured in Kyiv alone. The strike on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital resulted in the deaths of two people and left at least 10 injured.

Okhmatdyt is Ukraine’s largest children’s medical centre and plays a crucial role in treating some of the sickest children from across the country. Approximately 7,000 surgeries, including treatments for cancer and haematological diseases, are conducted at the hospital annually, according to Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.

Videos from the scene showed volunteers working with police and security services to sift through the rubble as smoke billowed from the hospital. Staff described how they tried to rush children to safety following the attack. Ukraine’s health minister Viktor Liashko said intensive care units, oncology departments, and surgery units had been damaged.

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“The key task here is to get people out of the rubble and provide assistance to those we can reach, as we have already taken out all the first ones,” Liashko said in a Telegram post.

The attacks were part of a rare daylight bombardment on Ukrainian cities, many of which are heavily populated areas far from the front lines. The assault occurred a day before US President Joe Biden is set to host a crucial NATO Summit in Washington, where new announcements regarding the alliance’s military, political, and financial support for Kyiv are expected.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Monday that Moscow had struck “military-industrial facilities of Ukraine and air bases of the Ukrainian armed forces” using long-range, high-precision weapons.

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Stephen Jesuwale

Jesuwale Stephen is a journalist who finished from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism. He is a distinctive writer, media strategist and also a Digital Marketer