Ukraine hospital took direct hit from Russian missile: UN rights panel

Kyiv, July 9

A UN rights mission said on Tuesday there was a “high likelihood” that Kyiv’s main children’s hospital took a direct hit from a Russian missile during a series of airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, as the Kremlin continued to deny involvement.

Ukraine flew its flags at half-mast in a national day of mourning to mark the deaths of 41 people, killed across the country in Monday’s air attacks, including four children and two people at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in the capital.

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

Ukraine’s security service said it had unequivocal evidence the medical facility was hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile during the deadliest series of strikes in months, and published images of what it said were fragments of the weapon’s engine.

Rescuers concluded operations at the children’s hospital earlier on Tuesday. Elsewhere in the capital, five bodies were recovered from the ruins of a residential building where 12 people were killed, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. — Reuters