“And the entire world must use all its determination to finally put an end to the Russian strikes,” Zelensky said on X. “Killing is what (Vladimir) Putin brings. Only together can we bring real peace and security.”
A Ukrainian serviceman carries a part of the missile after Russian attack destroyed the country’s main children’s hospital.Credit: AP
Air defences shot down 30 of 38 incoming missiles, the air force said. Fifty civilian buildings, including residential buildings, a business centre and two medical facilities were damaged in Kyiv, the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro and two eastern cities, the interior minister said.
In Kyiv, 21 people were killed and 65 more wounded in the initial attack, which also struck the hospital, killing at least two people including a young female doctor.
At least 11 people were killed and 37 injured in the city of Kryvyi Rih, in the Dnipro region. Three people were killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the regional governor said, and one person died in the city of Dnipro, officials said.
Smoke rises over the Kyiv skyline after a Russian attack.Credit: AP
Ukraine’s air force reported that Russian forces launched multiple ballistic and cruise missiles with explosions heard and felt across the capital. The attack included Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which fly at 10 times the speed of sound, the air force said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.Credit: AP
Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, accused Russia in a post to social media of “deliberately targeting” children.
“This shelling was aimed at civilians, they hit the infrastructure, the whole world must see today the consequences of terror, the answer to which can only be force.”
Russia claims it does not target civilians, with its defence ministry denying launching missiles at civilian targets.
The ministry claimed in a statement that the Russian military had only targeted “Ukrainian military industrial sites and air bases” and blamed the destruction in Kyiv on Ukrainian air defences.
According to the World Health Organisation, there have been more than 1600 instances of heavy weapons attacks impacting medical facilities in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, with 141 people killed in these attacks.
Last December, 12 pregnant women and four newborn babies had a lucky escape from a maternity hospital in Dnipro that had been extensively damaged in an airstrike.
with agencies
