At least 36 dead in massive Russian airstrikes across Ukraine

At least 36 people were killed in Russian airstrikes on multiple Ukrainian cities including Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Pokrovsk on Monday morning, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

22 people, including two children, have been killed and 82 injured in the Ukrainian capital alone, according to the head of the Kyiv region military administration Serhiy Popko.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that a medical facility in the capital was among the sites struck, and that medical crews had been dispatched to affected areas of the city. He urged residents to seek safety in air-raid shelters or to remain in their homes.

National broadcaster Suspilne said that the medical facility in question was the city’s biggest children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital “one of the most important children’s hospitals not only in Ukraine but also in Europe” and said that doctors and civilians were involved in attempting to pull people from under the rubble.

“Russia cannot help but know where its missiles are flying,” Zelensky said, adding that “it must be held fully accountable for all its crimes: against people, against children, against humanity in general.”

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said that 11 people are known to have died in the Dnipropetrovsk region, with 10 dead in the city of Kryvyi Rih and one killed in the city of Dnipro.

At least three people were killed in the city of Pokrovsk in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donetsk region, according to the regional authorities.

The Ukrainian Air Force has warned that Russian rockets have been launched towards the central city of Dnipro and at the central Cherkasy region, where explosions were also heard. One person was killed and six were injured in the strikes on Dnipro, regional authorities reported.

Ukrainian energy company DTEK said three electricity substations had been destroyed in Kyiv.

Russia’s Defence Ministry released a statement on Monday afternoon confirming the “multi-pronged strike with long-range precision weapons against Ukrainian military industrial facilities and Armed Forces of Ukraine air bases,” adding that the objectives of its strike had “been achieved”.

Describing Kyiv’s claims that Russia had launched “deliberate missile strikes on civilian facilities” as “absolutely untrue”, the ministry said that the damage had been caused by a falling “Ukrainian air defence missile launched from an anti-aircraft missile system within the city”.