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Strike on Kyiv children's hospital 'a war crime' - Harris

Updated / Monday, 8 Jul 2024 21:16
People clear rubble at the Okhmatdyt children's hospital after the missile strike
People clear rubble at the Okhmatdyt children's hospital after the missile strike

The Taoiseach has called Russia's missile attack on the main children's hospital in Kyiv "a war crime".

Simon Harris also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "openly targeting civilian infrastructure and innocent children".

In a post on X, he said: "This was a despicable and cowardly act. There can be no justification and no equivocation from the international community."

Russia struck cities across Ukraine with a missile barrage that killed at least 36 people and ripped open a children's hospital in Kyiv.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the strikes "particularly shocking," his spokesman has said.

Missiles that "hit the National Children's Specialised Hospital in Kyiv, which is the largest pediatric facility in Ukraine, and another medical facility in Kyiv are particularly shocking," Mr Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

"Directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects is prohibited by international humanitarian law and any such attacks are unacceptable. And must cease immediately."

The UN's rights chief, Volker Turk, echoed Mr Guterres, calling the attacks "abominable," saying that "the strikes severely damaged the intensive care, surgical and oncology wards of Okhmatdyt, which is Ukraine's largest children's referral hospital."

They "destroyed its children's toxicology department, where children receive dialysis," said Mr Turk, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights. "Among the victims were Ukraine's sickest children."

"This is abominable, and I implore those with influence to do everything in their power to ensure these attacks stop immediately," he said.

Ukraine said the children's hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise missile with components produced in NATO member countries, and announced a day of mourning in the capital.

Russia hit back claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by Ukrainian air defense systems.

Earlier, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said he was appalled at the attack.

Micheál Martin said that "a state that commits war crimes by targeting sick children using hypersonic missiles has no interest in peace".

France also condemned Russian strikes on Ukraine, with the foreign ministry calling the day-time bombardment of the children's hospital "barbaric".

"These barbaric acts directly and deliberately targeting a children's hospital can be added to the list of war crimes for which Russia will have to account," the ministry said, as volunteers and medics searched through the rubble of the Okhmatdyt hospital.

Britain's new foreign minister David Lammy condemned the strike on the hospital as "an appalling attack on Ukrainian civilians".

In a post on X, Mr Lammy: "The UK's support to Ukraine is iron-clad. We must hold those responsible for Putin's illegal war to account."

The Russian missile attacks that hit Ukraine, are war crimes that must be condemned by the whole world, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

"I am struck by the images of the bombings in Kyiv whichalso hit a children's hospital. War crimes that must be condemned by the entire international community," Mr Tajani wrote on X, adding: "The (Italian) government will continue to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and its people."

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