The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting after a Russian air strike hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv. US President Joe Biden has pledged to reinforce Ukraine’s air defense capabilities.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss a wave of Russian airstrikes on several Ukrainian cities.
Among the sites hit was the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
During the emergency meeting, France’s representative, Nicolas de Riviere, called it a “further entry in a list of war crimes” committed by Russia in Ukraine.
China also expressed concern over the strikes, but did not directly denounce Moscow.
Fighting in Ukraine “intensified and there have been brutal attacks from time to time that have claimed many victims. China is deeply concerned about this,” said China’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Geng Shuang.
Joyce Msuya, the acting head of the UN Emergency Relief and Works Agency (OCHA), said that the strike that hit the Okhmatdyt hospital was part of “a deeply concerning pattern of systemic attacks, harming healthcare and other civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.”
“Intentionally directing attacks against a protected hospital is a war crime and perpetrators must be held to account,” she said.
Russia is a permanent member of the UN body, meaning that it has a veto over Security Council resolutions. The other permanent members are China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Also on Tuesday, a UN rights mission said that there was a “high likelihood” that the children’s hospital in Kyiv took a direct hit from a Russian missile.
“Analysis of the video footage and an assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children’s hospital suffered a direct hit rather than receiving damage due to an intercepted weapon system,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
