Two of Ukraine’s main hospitals specializing in children and women were severely damaged on Monday when Russian forces attacked kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Unofficial figures report the deaths of dozens of civilians, including minors, in addition to 110 injured.
In an extraordinary session requested by Ukraine, the UN’s acting emergency relief coordinator, Joyce Msuya, informed the Security Council on the situation on the ground following the attack, which also damaged important energy infrastructure.
After reiterating the UN’s condemnation of the missile attack, the senior official said that the Organization’s Human Rights Office is verifying the figures while rescuers, medical personnel and volunteers continue to clear the rubble in search of trapped people.
Msuya recalled that International humanitarian law provides for special protection for hospitals and stated that intentionally attacking them is a war crime for which the perpetrators must be held accountable.
He added that the recent incidents in Ukraine are part of a “deeply worrying pattern of systematic attacks“that damage medical services and other civilian infrastructure throughout the country.
“The attacks have intensified since the spring of 2024,” he said.
Msuya said the UN has verified the 11,284 civilians killed and 22,594 wounded since the beginning of the conflict, which began in February 2022. These figures do not include Monday’s attacks, he clarified.
The World Health Organization (WHO), for its part, has documented 1,878 attacks that have affected healthcare facilities, personnel, transportation, supplies and patients.
Joyce Msuya, UN Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
40% of the population needs humanitarian assistance
“The consequences for the humanitarian situation in Ukraine are, of course, serious,” he stressed.
He said that more than 14.6 million peoplealmost 40% of the population, need humanitarian assistance and highlighted the difficulties in delivering it due to the attacks.
He also pointed out the limited access to aid for 1.5 million people in the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
“Like everyone else living near the front line in Ukraine, they certainly need urgent access to medical care, medicine, food and drinking water. In accordance with international humanitarian law, it is imperative that impartial humanitarian assistance be provided to all civilians in need,” he said.
Msuya argued that More resources are needed to keep humanitarian operations running in an “increasingly complex and dangerous” environment.
“We urgently need donors accelerate the financing of the response humanitarian,” he said, explaining that relief operations must be prepared for winter since there is no sign of an end to hostilities by then.
China urges not to escalate fighting
In his turn at the microphone, China’s alternate ambassador, Geng Shuan, spoke of the humanitarian crisis resulting from the conflict and its ““huge side effects”.
“The fighting has intensified rather than stopped, causing casualties,” the diplomat said.
Shuan said his country is deeply concerned about this situation. “We reiterate our call to the parties in conflict to act with restraint and comply with international humanitarian law and do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties,” he stressed.
The deputy ambassador urged the parties not to expand the battlefield, not to intensify fighting and not to exacerbate tensions.
US accuses Russia of attack
The United States Permanent Representative accused Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council and current President of the Council, of attacking a children’s hospital.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the attack “brutal” and He ruled out that it was an isolated incident, given other recent attacks on health facilities.
“Hundreds of children have been killed across the country, thousands have been injured and millions have been displaced from their homes as Russia continues its campaign of terror in Ukraine,” he added.
In addition, he continued, there were children who were deported or forcibly transferred, in order to “steal their future and identity.”
UN Security Council Session
The missile came from Ukrainian air defenses, Russia claims
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia refuted the allegations: “What happened is in photographs and they clearly show that it was a Ukrainian air defense missile,” he said, adding that Western members of the Security Council are “trying to protect the kyiv regime by any means.”
Nebenzia said that “the dishonesty of this tactic is obvious to the naked eye, as was immediately noticed by the Ukrainians themselves” in the video of the attack that appeared online.
The Russian diplomat said that the Ukrainian authorities tried to divert attention from the incident to “distract the masses from the daily anarchy of corruption governmental”.
It was a deliberate attack on the most vulnerable group, says Ukraine
Ukraine’s UN representative Sergey Kyslytsya, who was present at the session as an incumbent country, said that in Monday’s attacks Russia had deliberately targeted the most vulnerable and defenceless group in society – children with cancer and other often fatal diseases.
Even in times of peace, these children face enormous challenges and suffering, and require a lot of support, treatment and care, he said, Blaming Russia for a lack of empathy towards these minors for having attacked the hospital with a cruise missile “of which remains were found.”
According to Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian police and security services are investigating the incident and the preliminary assessment of military specialists indicates that These remains belong to parts and components of the KH-101 strategic air-to-ground cruise missile, which is used by Russian aviation units.
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