Daryna Vertetska was sitting with her 8-year-old daughter in Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital on Monday morning when Russian missiles began ringing in the sky.
His daughter, Kira, was receiving treatment for her cancer when an explosion boomed across the capital, Kyiv.
“We decided not to bother,” said Ms. Vertetska about the treatment.
As Kira continued her treatment, a missile slammed directly into Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, causing a very loud explosion, he said. Shards of flying glass sliced the child’s skin.
“He was very scared,” said Ms. Vertetska, 33. Bloodied but still alive, the pair ran through the smoke and dust to safety.
Today, the hospital where Kira spent five months receiving life-saving treatment is gone, another medical facility destroyed by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.
As exhausted rescue workers finished sifting through the rubble of the hospital on Tuesday, doctors and nurses rushed to the aid of scores of critically ill children who now have to seek care elsewhere, including many undergoing intensive cancer treatment like Kira.
No children died in hospital on Monday, but the destruction marked one of the worst days of violence against Ukrainian civilians in months, with more than 30 people killed in Kyiv. Russia’s attacks on Monday targeted capitals and cities across the country.
“I don’t want to, but I feel like I’m losing hope,” said Ms. Vertetska.
The attack on the hospital left a young patient sitting in the street with an IV attached to his arm. The bombing also damaged Ukraine’s most sophisticated laboratory for testing and confirming certain types of cancer, Ukraine’s health ministry said, adding that it was assessing the condition of the equipment to see if it could be restored.
“It’s scary because this is the only reference laboratory in Ukraine that confirms all oncohematological diseases,” Dr. Natalia Molodets, head of the pediatric hematology department at Odesa regional children’s hospital, said, referring to blood cancer.
Even in the first week of the war, when Russian forces tried to capture Kyiv, the laboratory continued to operate, according to Dr. Molodets.
“For our children, it’s very important,” he said.
Russia has been targeting Ukrainian medical facilities since the first day of the war, a pattern outlined by several international rights organizations. The bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol just weeks after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an early indication of Moscow’s brutal tactics.
As of this April, the World Health Organization said it had verified around 1,682 direct attacks on medical facilities using heavy weapons, resulting in 128 deaths and 288 injuries to staff members and patients.
Around the same time the children’s hospital was hit on Monday, debris from another Russian missile hit the Isida maternity hospital and a neighboring private clinic elsewhere in Kyiv. Nine people were killed in the attack, including two children.
Two other children – Maksym Symaniuk, 10, and his 9-year-old sister Nastia – were also killed when missile debris fell on their home on Monday, according to the Ukrainian Karate Federation.
On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zhovnir, director of the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital, testified about the attack at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
“Children and adults are screaming and crying from fear and the wounded from pain,” he said. “It’s real hell.” More than 300 people were injured, including eight children, according to Mr. Zhovnir. Two adults were also killed, including one doctor.
At the Security Council meeting, Moscow denied that it had targeted the facility, despite analysis of video footage and missile fragments collected by Ukraine’s security services that showed the hospital had been hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.
International organizations including UNICEF and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation in Ukraine have pledged to help rebuild the hospital. But with around 7,000 complex surgeries performed at Ohmatdyt each year, doctors say that won’t be easy to change.
President Biden, who welcomed Western leaders to Washington for NATO’s 75th anniversary on Tuesday, issued a statement saying Monday’s attack was a “horrifying reminder of Russia’s brutality.”
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Tuesday called the attack on the children’s hospital “especially despicable,” adding that it would only double Western military support for Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, together with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, Mr. Blinken noted that he had visited the hospital and met with sick and injured children there during one of his trips to Ukraine.
Children treated at Ohmatdyt are often unable to flee to the hospital’s bomb shelter during regular air raids because moving would interfere with treatment. Many patients are now transferred to other hospitals in Ukraine, including in Odesa and Lviv.
As the country’s top children’s hospital, Ohmatdyt is also home to the treatment of children who have experienced intense physical and emotional trauma. The staff is trained to handle some of the most difficult medical situations. But many say nothing could have prepared them for the horror of Monday’s attack.
Nazar Borozniuk, a physical therapist at the hospital, said no children had died.
Video clips recorded from inside the hospital after the attack showed ceiling panels and broken glass on the floor. “This is what it all looks like now,” he said in the video. “Let’s hope nothing goes over our heads.”
Speaking by phone on Monday evening, Mr Borozniuk described the horrific scene that unfolded in front of patients and staff at the hospital. “We started evacuating children, parents and families,” he said.
Hospital staff along with emergency medical workers and volunteers were waiting Monday to treat the injured. Other parts of the hospital, such as the emergency room, continued to be used even as firefighters poured water on the rubble to prevent the fire from spreading.
“I couldn’t even pick up the phone because my hands were covered in blood from helping,” Mr Borozniuk said. “I only know what to do with children: Provide aid, help the wounded and evacuate those in need,” he said.
The scene was so chaotic that Mr. Borozniuk said his feelings “just disappeared.” But as he drove home on Monday afternoon, hours after the hospital was hit, he finally began to process what had happened. “There will definitely be psychological consequences for everyone,” he said.
“We are all human.”
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reports from Kyiv, Dzvinka Pinchuk from Odesa, Eve Sampson from New York and Michael Crowley from Washington.
