Rescue and military forces clear the rubble of the destroyed building of Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital following a missile strike in Kyiv capital of Ukraine on July 8, 2024. Russia launched more than 40 missiles at several cities across Ukraine in an attack that killed at least 33 people. (Ori Aviram/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
(Tribune News Service) — Ukraine said Russia used a cruise missile in Monday’s attack on a hospital in Kyiv, rebutting Moscow’s claims that a Ukrainian anti-air missile was responsible.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry said in a statement that 627 patients were in the Okhmatdyt hospital at the time of the attack that injured 32 people including eight children and killed two.
Investigators used the engine and other parts of the cruise missile to identify it as an X-101, Ukraine’s Security Service known as the SBU, said in a statement, presenting photos of the missile debris including measurements and serial numbers. The X-101 is an air-launched cruise missile which Russia has used during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Experts’ conclusions are unambiguous — it was an intentional strike,” said the SBU. The complete destruction of the two-story hospital building was caused by an X-101 warhead, which weighs over 400 kg (881.9 pounds), according to the statement.
Kyiv has sought to refute claims by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who told RIA that a falling NASAMS anti-air missile, which Ukraine uses for air defense, was responsible for
the damage to the hospital. She also claimed that a military facility was located near the hospital. The Norwegian-developed NASAMS couldn’t cause that scale of damage “as their warheads are 20 times less powerful,” the SBU said.
Ukraine became a target of a massive Russian missile attack Monday morning, which hit many civilian targets in Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro. Monday’s attacks killed 40 people across Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a statement.
In a Telegram post this morning Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi described the attack on Okhmatdyt hospital as “deliberate” and vowed to “punish” those responsible.
Ukrainian military struck targets across Russia overnight, including an airbase in Aktyubinsk, an oil refinery in Volgograd and an electrical substation in the Rostov region, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. ©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
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