Kremlin says, without stating evidence, that Ukrainian fire hit Kyiv children’s hospital

MOSCOW – The Kremlin said on July 9 that Ukrainian anti-missile fire, not Russia, had hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv on July 8.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov provided no evidence to support the assertion, but told reporters: “I insist – we do not conduct strikes on civilian targets.”

The Ukrainian authorities say

Russia struck the main children’s hospital in Kyiv

with a missile on July 8 and rained missiles on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for months. The Ukrainian security service has said fragments of the rear part of a Russian Kh-101 Kalibr missile with a serial number were recovered at the site, as well as a part of the guidance system.

“The experts’ conclusions are unequivocal – it was a direct strike,” the security service said on Telegram.

The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission said on July 9 that the strike on the hospital was likely caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile, citing its own analysis.

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

She added that her team, which visited the site on July 8, could not make a final determination but that the missile appeared to have been launched by Russia.

Mr Peskov, at his daily briefing, was asked how Russia could say it does not attack civilian targets after the tragedy at the hospital.

“I urge you to be guided by the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defence, which absolutely excludes that there were attacks on civilian targets and which states that we are talking about a falling anti-missile system,” he said. “We continue to insist that we do not attack civilian targets. Strikes are carried out against critical infrastructure facilities, against military targets that are in one way or another related to the military potential of the regime.”

Many thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the course of the war since Russia launched what it called its “special military operation” in February 2022,

sending thousands of troops into Ukraine

. A much smaller number of civilians have been killed inside Russia and in parts of Ukraine that Russia controls and has claimed as its own.

Footage of the July 8 incident, verified by Reuters, showed a missile flying in a steep trajectory towards the hospital grounds at high speed, in what appeared to be a direct hit.

The Kh-101 that Ukraine says was used is a cruise missile that typically carries a 450kg explosive warhead.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected Kyiv’s version and said – without provoding evidence – that a missile from a Nasams surface-to-air system fired by Ukraine was to blame. She said this had been confirmed by “numerous witnesses”, without identifying them.

Ms Zakharova accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of seeking to exploit the tragedy for propaganda purposes. REUTERS