Joe Biden has known as one of many heaviest Russian airstrikes on Ukraine for the reason that warfare started “a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality”, amid widespread worldwide revulsion at Monday’s assaults and as Nato leaders gathered to announce new measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
The federal government of Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared Tuesday a day of mourning after a minimum of 38 civilians have been killed in a sequence of assaults the place targets included Ukraine’s largest youngsters’s hospital, leaving an unknown quantity trapped beneath the rubble in Kyiv. 4 of the useless have been youngsters, the Ukrainian president stated on Tuesday.
“It is critical that the world continues to stand with Ukraine at this important moment and that we not ignore Russian aggression,” the US president stated in a White Home assertion, including: “We will be announcing new measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences to help protect their cities and civilians.”
The president’s assertion got here on the eve of a Nato summit in Washington that marks the seventy fifth anniversary of the transatlantic alliance and which can carry collectively Zelenskiy and leaders of nations which have supplied Kyiv with tens of billions of {dollars} in navy support.
On Tuesday Zelenskiy stated rescue operations continued all through the night time after Monday’s assaults on Kyiv, in addition to the cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro. He stated 190 folks have been injured and 64 hospitalised. “I am grateful to everyone who is rescuing and caring for our people, to everyone involved, and to everyone who is helping,” he posted on X.
Greater than 100 buildings have been broken. “The Russian terrorists must answer for this,” Zelenskiy stated, including: “Being concerned does not stop terror. Condolences are not a weapon.”
Photos beamed all over the world confirmed dad and mom holding infants within the streets outdoors Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital, dazed and sobbing after the uncommon daylight aerial assault. Home windows had been smashed and panels ripped off, and a whole bunch of Kyiv residents have been serving to to clear particles.
The strike largely destroyed the youngsters’s hospital toxicology ward, the place sufferers with extreme kidney points have been being handled. A whole lot of rescue staff and volunteers joined the hassle to clear the particles and seek for survivors. Officers and emergency employees stated it was not instantly clear what number of medical doctors and sufferers – useless or alive – remained trapped beneath the rubble.
All surviving sufferers had been transferred to different medical establishments, Zelenskiy stated on Tuesday. A maternity centre within the capital was additionally hit. Zelenskiy was in Poland on the time of the assault earlier than heading to Washington DC.
The federal government known as a day of mourning on Tuesday for what is without doubt one of the worst air assaults of the warfare, including that Monday’s strikes confirmed the pressing have to improve its air defences.
Zelenskiy, addressing a information convention in Warsaw on Monday alongside the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, known as on Kyiv’s western allies to provide a agency response to the assault.
“We will retaliate against these people, we will deliver a powerful response from our side to Russia, for sure. The question to our partners is: can they respond?” Zelenskiy stated.
Zelenskiy has for months stated his nation doesn’t have sufficient air defence methods and has requested a minimum of seven extra Patriot batteries along with these already donated by the US, Germany and the Netherlands. Russia has exploited the gaps in Ukraine’s air defences to hold out devastating strikes on civilians and infrastructure, and to pummel Kyiv’s troops on the frontlines.
Observers anticipate Nato members to pledge a minimum of 4 further Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine on the conclusion of this week’s summit.
The bundle put ahead by Nato international locations has been offered as “historic” and is extensively seen as an try and “future-proof” continued support to Ukraine – however it might not totally fulfill Kyiv.
The UN safety council is about to satisfy on Tuesday on the request of Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the US.
In response to Monday’s assault, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, condemned “attacking innocent children” because the “most depraved of actions”, whereas the Italian overseas minister, Antonio Tajani, known as the missile strike a “war crime”.
A spokesperson for António Guterres, the UN secretary normal, stated he strongly condemned the “particularly shocking” strikes towards the youngsters’s hospital and one other medical facility.
The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, condemned the Russian strikes as “abominable”. France’s overseas ministry known as the bombardment of a youngsters’s hospital “barbaric” and the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, described the assault as “abhorrent”.
Russia, which has focused civilian infrastructure all through the warfare, denied accountability for the deaths on Monday. In a press release, the defence ministry attributed the incident, with out immediately referencing the hospital blast, to Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles, regardless of visible proof that appeared to level to a Russian strike.
Andriy Yermak, the top of the Ukrainian president’s workplace, shared a picture on X that appeared to indicate a Russian missile over Kyiv moments earlier than it struck a hospital, figuring out it as a Kh-101 cruise missile. Ukraine’s safety service stated it discovered wreckage from the cruise missile, which flies low to keep away from detection by radar, on the website.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
