Russia's attack on children's hospital odious, must be punished

 

For more than two years, the Moscow regime has continued its merciless, bloodthirsty terror by shelling Ukrainian cities, and striking civilians and critical infrastructure, in particular energy infrastructure.

On July 8, 2024, Russian killers committed one of the most terrible and heinous terrorist acts against Ukrainian civilians.

They blasted Ukraine's paediatric hospital in Kyiv (Ohmatdyt) with a missile in broad daylight and rained missiles down other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 41 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes in months.

The Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital is Ukraine’s largest children’s medical centre and has been vital in the care of some of the most vulnerable children. Every year, around 7,000 surgeries including treatments for cancer and hematological diseases are conducted at the hospital.

According to the UN’s Human Rights chief Volker Turk, who visited the site after the strike, children “were receiving treatment for cancer in hospital beds set up in parks and on streets, where medical workers had quickly established triage areas, amongst chaos, dust and debris.”

This policy of the Kremlin clearly indicates an attempt to commit genocide in Ukraine. The desire of the Russian leader is to destroy Ukrainians as a nation; to deprive Ukraine of the right to be an independent and successful country.

The destruction of the children's hospital is one of the most terrible acts of the Kremlin against the Ukrainian people.

But it is not the first time that such a terrible attack has been made. It is a continuation of a series of criminal actions of the Moscow regime against the Ukrainian children.

In March 2022, Russian forces carried out an air strike on a theatre in Mariupol which was being used as a refuge for children, and marked with the clear sign “children”, which was easily seen from the air, killing over 300 people.

It is also necessary to emphasise that Russia has systematically organised mass forced deportation of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories and sent them to various primarily remote regions of the Russian federation.

The horrific idea is that the Russians want to impose Russian citizenship on these children under a simplified procedure and against their will. The greater objective is to allow false adoption procedures in order to destroy the gene pool of the Ukrainian people.

That is why the International Criminal Court on March 17, 2023 issued an arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine for the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin's actions against Ukraine are crimes against humanity, and the Moscow and all those involved in the murder of Ukrainian citizens must bear full responsibility for these actions.

Ukrainians have no doubts that all Russian war criminals will be brought to justice in The Hague. It may take a long time, but in the end it will happen. There are many examples of other war criminals who thought that they had escaped justice, but one day found themselves in the dock of an international tribunal, having to answer for their crimes.

I appeal to Kenyans and their leadership to stand with Ukraine and to condemn Russia's crimes.

Mr Pravednyk is Ukraine's ambassador to Kenya