The Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv shortly
after the missile impact. Screenshot photo from video posted on X by President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Attack on Kyiv children’s hospital
carried out by Tu-95MS from Olenya airfield
Footage of the missile before impact and
studies of debris at the blast site make Ukraine’s Security Service believe it
was a Kh-101 that hit the children’s hospital.
By
Thomas Nilsen
July 09, 2024
Last
night, those planes flew into launch positions over Kursk region from
Olenya airfield on the Kola Peninsula, a short 150 and 200 kilometers from
Russia’s northern border with Finland and Norway.
Ukrainian
Air Force reported on Telegram at 06:19 am the take-off of five Tu-95MS from the Olenya airfield
in Murmansk region.
In
broad daylight a few hours later, the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in the
western part of the Ukrainian capital was in ruins.
There
were no other strategic bombers from other airfields in position at the
time.
“I
don’t understand how people can be such animals. Even animals don’t do such
things. They are not even animals,” Alla Nesolionova, a doctor at the
cardiology center at the Okhmatdyt hospital, told the Kyiv Independent.
“I
don’t know how these pilots can launch missiles. They know the targets. They
know the coordinates.”
Day of Family, Love and Fidelity
While
the pilots were in the air, their families at home in the northern Russian
town of Vysoky (also known under the military
code-name Olenegorsk-8) celebrated the All-Russian Holiday, the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity.
The
town has about 8,000 inhabitants; pilots and crew, ground personnel, weapons’
services and their families. All attached to the Olenya airfield, from where
the Russian strategic aviation forces operate a fleet of Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS and
Tu-160.
The Barents Observer has previously, based on satellite images,
pointed out the storage and reloading terminal for weapons arriving up north
via the railway.
Two waves with bombers
The
first group of four Tu-95 from Olenya airfield took off in the evening on
Sunday, reported by the Ukrainian Air Force on Telegram at 21.50.
At
00.37 the first cruise missiles were presumably launched, and at 00.41 the Air
Force urged people in eastern Ukraine to take shelter when air alarms were
triggered. The Russian planes were then in launch positions over Saratov
region.
Three
out of four Kh-101 missiles from the first wave of Tu-95MS bombers were shot
down by the Ukrainians in the Zhytomyr and Cherkasy regions, the Air Force
reported in the early morning.
By
then, the second wave of aircraft from the Russian north was already in the
skies heading south.
Threat
to the Kyiv region was announced at 09.20 and one minute later, air alarm was
triggered and people asked to take shelter. Russia’s second massive cruise
missile attack of the day had started.
A
total of 38 air, sea and ground-based missiles were launched around 10.00,
including Kinzhal, Iskand-M, Tsirkon, Kalibr. And the Kh-101 carried by Tu-95MS
bombers from Olenya airfield.
30
of the missiles were shot down, including 11 of 13 Kh-101.
One
of the cruise missiles that were not neutralized by the Ukrainian air
defence systems hit the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv.
It
still unclear how many were wounded in the ruined building where bloody
children, patrons, doctors and other medical employees were doing their best to
evacuate the hospital.
The
Ukrainian Security Service identified the missile that hit the children’s
hospital as an Kh-101, Reuters reported. Numerous photos and video analysis are
posted on the net, as the missile was captured from different CCTVs near the
area of impact.
Studies
of debris at the blast site also indicated that the missile was a Kh-101.
It
was last spring the strategic air forces relocated more than 10 Tu-95MS and Tu-160 long-range
bombers to Olenya. The
move came after Engels Air Base in Saratov region was hit by Ukrainian drones.
The
air base just south of Murmansk has since become central for Russia’s terror
bombing in Ukraine.
Olenya
is 1,800 km north of Russia’s border with Ukraine.
NATO Summit
Russia’s
massive missile attack across Ukraine came one day before NATO leaders are due
to start a 3-day summit in Washington D.C.
Russia
must be held fully accountable for all its crimes, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X after the first terrifying reports from the bombed children’s
hospital came.
“It
is very important that the world does not remain silent about this now, and
that everyone sees what Russia is and what it is doing,” Zelenskyy said
Western
leaders are all condemning Russia.
Distance from Finland’s eastern border in the north to the Olenya airfield
is some 150 km.
Norway,
sharing a border with Russia some 200 km from Olenya airfield, says it is “extremely serious” that the attacks hit civilians and
civilian infrastructure.
“It
is particularly disturbing that the National Children’s Hostpital Ohmatdyt has
been hit,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide says.
He
calls on Moscow to end its illegal war and immediately withdraw all
its forces from Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.
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