Hospitals: Where Russia Kills Children  

For most of the time, life in Kyiv is much like anywhere else. The routines of the day are predictable and mostly benign. But for the 627 child patients at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital on the morning of July 8, something unforeseeable happened. Russia’s war leadership tried to kill them. 

I was some distance away, at home, but I heard two booming explosions, one following swiftly after the other. And soon, I heard what had happened and was paralyzed. And then I went there. 

There isn’t a parent in Kyiv who hasn’t at least heard of Okhmatdyt. It’s a true national institution and a symbol of civilization where our most helpless people are offered the best care the country can afford. 

I wasn’t alone in my shock. Taking the subway, I noticed a young woman sitting next to me and crying helplessly like a small child, her tears flowing uncontrollably. She seemed embarrassed, keeping her head down and wiping her eyes with a paper napkin. Occasionally, she looked at the photos of the destroyed hospital. 

“Do you have someone in Okhmatdyt?” I asked. 

“No, it’s just too many things happening at the same time. The hospital was hit, and my husband is fighting on the frontline . . . ” she said. 

She turned the phone screen toward me, showing a photo of her and her husband. He, dressed in army uniform, was hugging his girl. They were smiling. Looking around the subway car, I realized all my fellow passengers would have a similar story.  

The streets around Okhmatdyt were filled with vehicles belonging to the police and the many volunteers who had come on their own initiative. 

The place where the Russian missile hit resembled a giant anthill, with each person clearing heaps of rubble, boards, and metal flooring. What hope remained for those trapped underneath was unclear, and anyway, that was the wrong question to ask. In disasters, the instinct is to seek out the victims and keep them alive. 

Later, the authorities said the missile had destroyed 400 square meters (4,300 sq. ft.) of the hospital, with intensive care units, oncology departments, and the surgery unit damaged. Other buildings were also hit. 

Broken glass from shattered windows crunched underfoot. Several women were sweeping it into piles, urging everyone nearby to donate blood. A few steps away from the piles of broken glass, doctors stood smoking. Their scrubs were covered in dust and blood.  

On this day, they were doing whatever they could — explaining events to the media, clearing rubble bare-handed, and calming patients. A family stood by the road: a boy about eight years old, his grandparents, and his father. They were hiding in the shade under a tree so the boy could have lunch.  

Nearby sat another boy in a wheelchair, his arms and legs wrapped in blood-stained bandages. I saw parents and children battling cancer on the hospital grounds. The youngsters, their heads bald and faces covered with masks because of their weakened immune systems, stayed close to their medical devices, which had also been wheeled out as they evacuated. People carried bottles of water for the patients and the rescuers. 

“They deliberately fired missiles on the eve of the NATO summit in Washington to show the West that they are not afraid of anyone or anything,” said Yehor Cherniev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and head of Ukraine’s permanent delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.  

“Meanwhile, the West is afraid to invite Ukraine to join the alliance. They don’t dare provide as many air defense systems as required. They hesitate to give us permission to fire long-range missiles at Russian territory. They are afraid to give us Taurus missiles.” 

Cherniev said he would raise all these issues at the summit in Washington on July 9-11. Because Russia exploits the gaps in our air defenses to kill children. 

Later, Kyiv residents would start posting videos captured during the attack on the hospital. These showed a Kh-101 cruise missile just before impact flying directly toward Okhmatdyt.  

Leading Ukrainian military correspondent Yurii Butusov noted that the device was indeed a Kh-101 that was launched by Russian T-95MS aircraft. “The video of the strike shows a typical Kh-101 missile with a turbojet engine under its hull. The claims of the Russian Defense Ministry and Russian propagandists that Ukrainians destroyed the hospital themselves with air defense missiles have once again been refuted by obvious facts,” Butusov commented, adding that the video clearly showed that Ukrainian air defense forces did not damage or shoot down the Russian missile, and it did not malfunction.  

“The missile precisely followed the target, headed straight for the hospital. This means that the Russian military accurately programmed the flight path and the point of impact, targeting specifically the children’s hospital.” 

The Security Service of Ukraine corroborated Butusov’s claim, as did the Bellingcat investigative site. At the site of impact, their investigators found fragments of the Kh-101 wing deployment mechanism, the Kh-101 jamming unit, the middle part of the Kh-101 cruise missile body, the tail section fairing, a fragment of the Kh-101 hydraulic unit, and fragments of the Kh-101 engine casing with its serial numbers. 

This is no surprise to Ukrainians, or to those who track Russian attacks. Since the all-out war began in 2022, Russia has attacked 1,442 Ukrainian healthcare facilities, using techniques it developed in Syria. It strains credulity to believe that Russia’s military, which says it uses precision weapons, has simply made 1,442 mistakes. 

Yurii Bielousov, Head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed During the Armed Conflict at the Office of the Prosecutor General, said: “The order was issued at the very top. It is the president and the top military leadership of the Russian Federation who give final approval to such orders or actually outline their details. It’s only a matter of time before they are put on trial.” 

A few hours after the massive air raid, the air raid sirens sounded again in Kyiv. A few minutes later, smoke rose on the left bank of Kyiv. Missile fragments had struck a medical clinic, killing five employees and two patients. 

Tetiana Bezruk is a Ukrainian journalist and war correspondent.  

Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.