Members of the United Nations Security Council have condemned Russia’s assault on civilian sites across Ukraine Monday morning that killed at least 42 people and injured 300 others. Among the dead were two adults killed when Russia bombed Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv, and seven people who died when Russia struck a maternity and fertility clinic in Kyiv. This is U.N. emergency relief coordinator Joyce Msuya.
Joyce Msuya: “Let me remind this council that hospitals have special protection under international humanitarian law. Intentionally directing attacks against a protected hospital is a war crime, and perpetrators must be held to account.”
Russia’s U.N. ambassador, who chaired Tuesday’s Security Council meeting, blamed Ukrainian air defenses for the explosion at the children’s hospital. That’s a finding contradicted by a U.N. human rights monitor. The U.N. says more than 11,000 civilians across Ukraine have been killed and 22,000 injured since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Healthcare facilities and medical workers have faced nearly 1,900 attacks.