Kyiv - In one of the largest missile attacks on Ukraine, the country’s largest children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt Children’s hospital, was hit today, resulting in deaths and injuries.
Children with serious medical conditions, some requiring critical life support, are waiting for evacuation or re-hospitalisation in other parts of Okhmatdyt Children’s hospital near the destroyed building in Kyiv, according to the Minister of Health of Ukraine. This was the largest diagnostic and treatment facility for children in the country. The children’s dialysis department was particularly damaged.
“Increasingly, our teams are witnessing attacks on civilian and medical infrastructure by the Russian forces across Ukraine, on frontline towns and villages and deeper in the country,” says Christopher Stokes, emergency coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Ukraine. “Hospitals are being destroyed, and patients and medical staff are being killed.”
“The Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv, which was attacked today, is known to our teams,” says Stokes. “At the beginning of the full-scale war, our doctors assisted medical staff in the surgical wards and provided training for physical therapists. It is unacceptable that patients cannot feel safe and receive treatment within the walls of a hospital.”
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reports that the missile strike on Okhmatdyt hospital resulted in two adults being killed, and there are 16 wounded, including seven children. Search and rescue operations are ongoing. There may be people trapped under the rubble. Rescuers and volunteers are urgently working to reach the basement of the hospital building, which collapsed due to the missile impact, as children and medical personnel were sheltering there during the alarm.
An MSF team visited the hospital today to assess the situation and offer assistance if necessary.
MSF responds to requests from the Ministry of Health. We support hospitals near the frontline and departments of medical institutions where early physical rehabilitation is provided to patients with war injuries. Our teams continue to assist medical facilities with the evacuation of patients between hospitals and cities by MSF ambulances.
