Volunteers, including medics, help emergency and rescue personnel to clear the rubble of a destroyed building at Ohmatdyt Children s Hospital following a Russian missile attack in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on July 8, 2024, amid Russia s war in Ukraine. AFP
Russia struck cities across Ukraine on Monday with a missile barrage that killed 33 people and ripped open a children's hospital in Kyiv.
Missiles that "hit the National Children's Specialized Hospital in Kyiv, which is the largest pediatric facility in Ukraine, and another medical facility in Kyiv are particularly shocking," said Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
"Directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects is prohibited by international humanitarian law and any such attacks are unacceptable. And must cease immediately."
The UN's rights chief Volker Turk echoed Guterres, calling the attacks "abominable," saying that "the strikes severely damaged the intensive care, surgical and oncology wards of Okhmatdyt, which is Ukraine's largest children's referral hospital."
They "destroyed its children's toxicology department, where children receive dialysis," said Turk, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights. "Among the victims were Ukraine's sickest children."
"This is abominable, and I implore those with influence to do everything in their power to ensure these attacks stop immediately," he said.
Kyiv said the children's hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile with components produced in NATO member countries, and announced a day of mourning in the capital.
Russia hit back claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defense systems.
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