Editor’s note: This story describes the victims of missile strikes.
KYIV and LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — A barrage of Russian missiles landed on Ukrainian cities Monday, killing at least 36 other people and wounding more than 149 and destroying a giant children’s hospital in Kyiv, the state of emergency said.
“We think this is our bastion of safety, that this couldn’t happen here,” Khrystyna Korvach, a 29-year-old anesthesiologist at Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, told NPR. “But it wasn’t like that. Because Russia needs to kill us all. “
At least 22 people, in addition to two children, were killed in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and 82 others were wounded, according to the Kiev city army administration. There were more casualties in cities in central and eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine said the Russian military used Kinzhal ballistic missiles and fast-moving cruise missiles in the attacks, which took place a day before the NATO summit in Washington, D. C.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its forces were responding to the Kiev regime’s “attempts to damage Russian economic and energy comforts” and that they were using long-range weapons to attack “Ukraine’s military-industrial facilities and air bases of the Armed Forces. “Forces of Ukraine. ” Russia has denied hitting civilian targets and accused Ukraine of being “hysterical” ahead of the NATO summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for an emergency assembly of the United Nations Security Council and said Russian President Vladimir Putin will be held accountable.
“We would like to see greater determination from our partners and hear resolute responses to those attacks,” Zelensky said in Warsaw, where he stopped on his trip to the NATO summit. “I see the option of our partners using their air defense systems to attack missiles that provoke attacks on our country. “
The strike at Okhmatdyt hospital, one of the largest treatment centers for children with cancer in Ukraine, has sparked international outrage. The hospital’s toxicology section was largely destroyed, as were the surgical and intensive care units. They were trapped under the rubble. Zelensky posted a video on social media showing stunned passers-by seeking to cover the ruins. Inside, blood was visible in the rooms of patients whose windows had been blown out.
Korvach, the anesthesiologist, described chaotic scenes of attempts to evacuate injured and terrified young patients, some of whom were on ventilators.
“We carried the young people in our arms to the emergency branch downstairs,” he said.
Another anesthesiologist, Yaroslava Yerofieieva, 51, said the missiles fell while the hospital was busy with operations.
“Everything was for the doctors, the young people,” he said. “The doctors ended up in the operating rooms and entered smoke-filled corridors. The young people knew what was happening.
U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement that a U. N. team had observed young people “receiving cancer treatment in hospital beds set up in parks and on the streets, where medical staff had temporarily set up triage spaces amid the chaos. “, the dust”. and debris.
Monday’s attacks added urgency to Tuesday’s NATO summit, which will also mark the security alliance’s 75th anniversary. NATO leaders are expected to reject the Ukrainian club’s request, but U. S. officials say they will offer more air defense systems for Ukraine to repel near-daily Russian attacks.
Ukraine’s leaders claim they are protecting only their own country from Russia, but also the Western democratic ideals that underpin NATO.
“The most important thing that will have to come out of this summit will have to be total clarity about Ukraine’s long-term within NATO,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and former government minister, who is an activist. he has long been in favor of Ukraine’s club in NATO. years. ” And this is not only vital for Ukraine. This is vital for NATO itself.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the United States and other NATO countries have provided billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine. A senior U. S. official told NPR that the United States is willing to supply more air defense systems to Ukraine at this week’s summit. and also make a long-term commitment to security needs. The official asked to be designated to brief journalists until the leadership publicly announces new weapons for Ukraine.
But Mustafa Nayyem, who until last month was head of Ukraine’s reconstruction agency, said he was frustrated that U. S. officials also insist that Ukraine deserves not to join NATO until it wins the war.
“We realize that without NATO support,” he said, “we will not be able to win, so it is a dilemma and a paradox. “
Ukrainians have also expressed frustration over what they see as a preference for certain NATO countries to appease Russia.
“NATO presents itself as one of the most powerful and complex alliances in the world, but it acts decisively,” said Hennadiy Menko, a 27-year-old veterinarian in Kyiv. “They look like a chained dog that just barks and that’s it. “
NPR’s Joanna Kakissis edited from Lviv. Kateryna Malofieieva and Polina Lytvynova edited from kyiv. NPR’s Tom Bowman contributed to this from Washington.
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