Search for survivors as Ukraine mourns after wave of deadly strikes

US President Biden condemns missile attacks as ‘a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality’.

Ukrainians have been observing a day of mourning after a spate of Russian missile attacks killed dozens of civilians on Monday and the search for survivors is ongoing at a flattened children’s hospital.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 38 civilians, including four children, were killed and 190 people were injured in the wave of attacks.

One facility hit was the main paediatric hospital in the capital, Kyiv, where blast debris fell on active open-heart surgery patients. The roof of the Okhmatdyt hospital’s toxicology department, where children undergo dialysis, also collapsed, Ukrainian officials said, with cancer patients being wheeled onto the streets to escape the carnage.

At least two workers at Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital were killed and 16 people were injured, including seven children, with the search for those trapped under the rubble continuing on Tuesday.

Russia denied attacking the hospital, blaming the damage on fragments of a Ukrainian air defence missile. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “I insist, we do not conduct strikes on civilian targets.”