Closing summary
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Ukraine will retaliate after Russian missile strikes killed at least 29 people across the country. Ukraine would initiate a meeting of the United Nations’ security council after the strike, he said.
An unknown number of people have been trapped under rubble after Okhmatdyt hospital, Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital and the main treatment centre in the country for children with cancer, was hit during the attack. The hospital was evacuated after its power, oxygen and water supplies were lost. Another hospital – the Isida maternity hospital in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district – was hit by falling debris. The death toll has been regularly increased by officials throughout the day as bodies were found by emergency service workers. The overall death toll is therefore likely to rise further, given the scale of the strikes and the damage inflicted.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the attack on the Ukrainian capital was one of the heaviest since Russia’s full-scale invasion was launched in February 2022. The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, meanwhile, called for international condemnation of Russia. “I am struck by the images of the bombings in Kyiv which also hit a children’s hospital. War crimes that must be condemned by the entire international community,” Tajani wrote on X.
The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 30 out of 38 Russia-launched missiles during the deadly attack, which was heavily condemned by the UN. Russian forces used cruise, ballistic, aerial ballistic and guided missiles in a combined attack on Ukrainian cities, the Ukrainian air force said.
The Russian defence ministry said that its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine. Moscow said its strikes were retaliation for attacks on Russia.
The attack came as Zelenskiy visited Warsaw before heading to the Nato summit in Washington tomorrow, where he is expected to appeal for more military support from the country’s allies. In Warsaw, the Ukrainian president and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, signed an agreement on security cooperation. Ukraine and Poland agreed to further develop political, military, and economic cooperation, and “cooperate closely in the reconstruction of Ukraine as a sovereign and democratic state”.
Speaking to reporters, Tusk said that Poland was open to the idea of shooting down Russian missiles that were heading for Nato territory while they were still over Ukrainian soil.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow on Monday for a two-day visit, his first since Russia sent troops into Ukraine. Modi was set to have dinner with Russian president Vladimir Putin, to be followed by Kremlin talks on Tuesday.
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Updated
Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, has said that calls for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Ukraine would only prompt Moscow to make further attacks.
Podolyak wrote in a post on X:
Literally, in parallel with the deliberate attack on children in the Ukrainian capital, the leaders of Hungary and China once again demanded “an immediate ceasefire”. This demand is not directed at Russia. It is directed only at the West and Ukraine.
And its purpose is to create a false feeling: the aggressor has the right to kill, because he speaks of “peace”, and the victim should not defend himself and therefore should immediately stop resistance.
Three unconditional conclusions in connection with the deliberate missile strike (X-101 class missiles) on Ukraine's largest children's hospital "#Okhmatdyt"...
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) July 8, 2024
1. This is a fully deliberate action, specifically designed and approved by the entity Putin. On the eve of the @NATO…
His comments came on the day the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán made a surprise trip to Beijing to see his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping (see opening summary at 09.00 for more details).
“The international community should create conditions for the resumption of direct dialogue and negotiations between the two sides and provide assistance,” Xi told Orban earlier, according to Chinese state media.
“It is in the interests of all parties to seek a political solution through an early ceasefire,” he added.
China, which has close ties to Russia, has been promoting a six-point peace plan it issued with Brazil in May, proposing an international peace conference “at a proper time” and calling for equal participation by both Ukraine and Russia.
During his visit to Kyiv last week, Orbán said he had asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to consider a quick ceasefire that could accelerate peace talks.
Both Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin rejected Orbán’s call for a ceasefire, with the Ukrainian leader saying his country “cannot just trust Putin in principle”.
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