UN Permanent Representative of Ukraine Sergiy Kyslytsya stated that “the children who Russia cannot abduct and brainwash, Russia kills,” referring to the Russian deliberate attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv on 8 July.
He said this during a United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting on 9 July, while Russia’s UN representative, Vasily Nebenzya, was sitting in the same room. Russia is holding the UN Security Council presidency for a month.
Earlier, the OSINT analysis confirmed that Russia struck Okhmatdyt Hospital directly with a Kh-101 missile, killing at least two people, including a female doctor, and injuring over 30 people.
Kyslytsya’s remark about the abduction and brainwashing of Ukrainian kids refers to the arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova by the International Criminal Court (ICC), charging them with the unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.
“Let us not forget that the pains Russia goes to harm Ukrainian children has been a mainstream aspect of their aggression from the very beginning,” Kyslytsya said at the UN Security Council.
Okhmatdyt is the largest medical center in Ukraine, treating young patients with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. As a result of the attack, the toxicology ward where young patients received dialysis was completely destroyed, while surgical, medical-diagnostic buildings, trauma, as well as hematology and oncology departments were damaged.
The Russian strike also damaged a nearby Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, where three heart surgeries were underway at the time of the attack.
Kyslytsya reacted to Russia’s denial of directly hitting the children’s hospital and accusing Ukraine’s air defense systems.
“Putin’s envoy employed his usual tactics of denying reality and blaming Ukrainian air defense. I recall clear footage of the Russian missile approaching the hospital, the scale of the destruction and the eyewitness accounts,” he said.
On 8 July, the Russian forces also attacked the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk, targeting civilians at homes and at work, killing in total at least 47 people and injuring over 190.
“Russia is like cancer, only worse. It will stop killing and expanding violence only when it is incapable of doing so,” he said.
Kyslytsya called for UN members to take bold steps to eliminate any security threats from Russia, stating that “it is imperative to shoot down Russian missiles” and “to destroy Russian combat aircraft at their bases.”
Despite the 8 July Russian attack on the children’s hospital, the US policy on Ukraine’s use of American weapons remains unchanged, meaning that Ukraine is not allowed to strike deep inside Russia with Western-supplied weapons.
In just 22 hours, Ukrainians raised $6.1 million for the restoration of Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital through fundraising led by United24 and Monobank. Contributions came from large businesses and individuals.
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