Russian missile attack kills 29, hits children’s hospital

KYIV, July 08 (Agencies): Russia rained missiles down on cities across Ukraine in broad daylight on Monday morning, killing at least 29 civilians and badly damaging Kyiv's main children's hospital in the deadliest air strike in months, officials said.
Hundreds of people rushed to clear debris at the hospital, where windows had been smashed and panels ripped off. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack.
"It was scary. I couldn't breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby). I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe," Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia fired more than 40 missiles, damaging residential and commercial buildings and infrastructure in Kyiv, his home city of Kryvyi Rih, the central city of Dnipro and two eastern cities.
Ten people were killed and 35 wounded in the main wave of attacks on Kyiv, authorities said. Some two hours later, debris from another missile attack hit a different hospital in Kyiv, killing four more and injuring three more, the emergency services said. Eleven were confirmed dead in Kryvyi Rih and over 40 wounded, the emergency services said. Three people had been killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the regional governor said. One person was also killed in the city of Dnipro, officials said.
"The whole world must act as decisively as it can to put an end to Russian air strikes. Murder - this is what Putin brings. Only together we can achieve true peace and security," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, although its attacks have killed thousands of civilians since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The attack came a day before leaders of NATO countries were due to begin a three-day summit of the military alliance that Zelenskiy is expected to attend with the war in Ukraine one of the focuses.
"This callous aggression - a total disregard for human life, jeopardizing European & Transatlantic security - is why leaders will make significant security commitments to Ukraine this week," the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridget Brink, posted on X.
Meanwhile, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) blocked an attempt by Ukraine to organise the hijacking of a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber and fly it to Ukraine, the FSB said on Monday.
"Ukrainian intelligence intended to recruit a Russian military pilot for a monetary reward and the provision of Italian citizenship, to persuade him to fly and land a missile carrier in Ukraine," the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said on its website.
Reuters could not independently verify the details. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has not immediately responded to Reuters' request for a comment.
During the operation, Russia received information that helped its forces to strike the Ozerne airfield in northwestern Ukraine, the FSB added in its statement.
The timings of the operation and the alleged strikes on the Ozerne airfield in Ukraine's Zhytomyr were both unclear.
Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday that world powers should help Russia and Ukraine re-start direct negotiations during a visit to Beijing branded a "peace mission" by the European leader.
Orban's trip to China comes a day before NATO is due to hold a summit to mark its 75th anniversary, with setbacks in Ukraine expected to dominate discussions, and follows surprise visits by the Hungarian premier to Russia and Ukraine in the past week.
Orban's trip to Moscow sparked criticism from the European Union, which said it threatened to undermine the bloc's stance on the conflict, while Kyiv's foreign ministry said the visit was made "without any agreement or coordination with Ukraine".
China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of its neighbour and last year released a paper calling for a "political settlement" to the conflict, which Western countries said could enable Russia to retain much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as saying the "international community should create conditions and provide assistance for the two sides to resume direct dialogue and negotiations".