A deadly strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv was likely caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Belle, said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The broad daylight strike was part of a large-scale attack that has killed at least 41 people across Ukraine, including children. The Kremlin said that the hospital was hit by Ukrainian anti-missile weapons, not by Russia.
"Analysis of the video footage and the assessment made at the scene indicates that it is highly likely that the children's hospital was hit directly, rather than damaged by interception," said Danielle Belle.
She added that her team, which visited the site on Monday, could not draw a definitive conclusion, but that it appeared the missile was launched by the Russian Federation.
According to Belle, the hospital had about 670 child patients and about 1,000 staff at the time of the attack.
"The staff moved the children to the bunker yesterday morning when the air raid sirens first went off, otherwise there would have been many more casualties," she said.
Over 100 houses were damaged in Kyiv as a result of the Russian missile attack, and 6 houses will have to be dismantled. People who lived in the shelled buildings were accommodated in dormitories in the city. Meanwhile, the death toll in Kyiv has risen to 31. 117 people were injured.