UN says Kyiv hospital likely hit by direct missile strike as Russia blamed

At least one person has been killed and three injured in a Russian strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, the state emergency service has reported.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, they wrote: “As a result of an enemy attack in the morning in Nikopol, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a man was killed and three more people were injured.

“As a result of the shelling, several fires broke out, and dry grass in the open area caught fire.

Rescuers extinguished all fires.”

Hungarian opposition politician Peter Magyar, the main challenger to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, delivered aid on Wednesday to the Kyiv children’s hospital hit during Russian airstrikes this week.

Magyar’s Tisza party raised about 15 million forints ($33,000) and collected medical supplies and food donated by Hungarians.

“This was a sudden decision after we saw the brutal Russian missile attack,” Magyar told reporters before leaving for Kyiv.

A UN rights mission said on Tuesday there was a “high likelihood” Kyiv’s main children’s hospital took a direct hit from a Russian missile. The Kremlin said, without providing evidence, the hospital was hit by Ukrainian anti-missile fire.

Orban, a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine and the European Union leader with the warmest relations with Russia, se visited Kyiv and Moscow last week as part of what he calls a “peace mission”. His meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin drew a strong rebuke from some European allies.

“The prime minister is allowed to travel the world and pretend that he is creating peace but we believe in actions instead of flying around the world three times. We are different,” Magyar said.

Magyar, whose party won nearly 30 per cent of the Hungarian vote in a European Parliament election in June, said Orban should have visited Kyiv sooner but that one reason for the delay was a disagreement between Kyiv and Budapest over the rights of Ukraine‘s Hungarian minority.

Magyar said he agreed with the government that no arms shipments to Ukraine should go via Hungary or with its help, as this could make Ukraine‘s Hungarian community a target, but other countries had the sovereign right to send arms to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Health has issued The Independent a written update on the extent of damage inflicted on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital by a Russian missile attack on Monday.

As a result of the rocket-terrorist attack on the ‘Okhmatdyt’ hospital, the toxicology corps with the department of chronic and acute intoxications (where children undergo dialysis) was completely destroyed. Two people died, more than 50 were injured. In the old surgical building, almost all the windows were broken, significant damage was noted to two surgical and two somatic departments, the intensive care unit and the operating unit. In the new, recently built building, 12 departments were damaged, including 8 surgical departments, 5 oncological departments, two intensive care units, an operating room, and a radiology and radiation therapy department. A part of the country’s only oncology and haematology laboratory was also damaged.

The building of the Center for Children’s Cardiology and Cardiosurgery was also damaged – the windows were blown out by the blast wave, but there were no victims. In addition, a four-story building of a private medical centre in the Dnipro district of Kyiv was partially destroyed as a result of a repeated rocket attack. According to the KMVA, 9 people died and 5 were injured.

Rescue operations are completed.

During the rocket attack, several operations continued in ‘Okhmatdyt’ and the Children’s Cardio Center. We know of cases of injuries to children who were operated on by splinters of glass broken by an explosion. Thanks to the professionalism of our doctors, their lives are no longer in danger.

‘Okhmatdyt’ is the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine and it suffered great destruction. The full amount of damages is calculated. However, we kept the most valuable thing – the doctors. All of them are ready to work in other medical facilities until the time of renewal in ‘Okhmatdyt’. Therefore, we do not foresee a deterioration in the provision of children’s medical care in Kyiv.

A fundraiser set up to finance the rebuilding of the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital destroyed by Russian cruise missiles on Monday has surpassed £5.5 million.

It is the most amount of money raised by United24, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s official fundraising platform, in just 48 hours.

You can donate yourself to the fundraiser here.

Sir Keir Starmer has backed Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow long-range missiles to strike mainland Russia so long as it is for “defensive purposes”.

The newly-elected British prime minister made the call on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Washington, his first of his premiership.

Former UK foreign secretary David Cameron gave Ukraine the green light to use Storm Shadows on mainland Russia after the Kremlin launched a cross-border attack on the northeast Kharkiv region of Ukraine.

Sir Keir’s comments suggest not only that support for Ukraine is bipartisan but that the Labour administration is keen to continue backing Kyiv in a similar fashion to their predecessors.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has posted images of its soldiers somewhere in occupied Ukraine.