UN Security Council to meet to discuss attack on kyiv children’s hospital

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss the Russian attack on Ukraine that hit kyiv’s main children’s hospital, diplomats said.

Russia launched a missile at the hospital in broad daylight on Monday and rained missiles on other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 36 civilians in the deadliest wave of airstrikes in months.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the Russian strikes, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres called the attack on the children’s hospital and another medical facility “particularly shocking,” he added.

“Directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects is prohibited under international humanitarian law, and such attacks are unacceptable and must cease immediately,” he said.

The Security Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning was requested by Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the United States.

“We will denounce Russia’s cowardly and depraved attack on the hospital,” British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward said in a message posted on X.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces attacked defense industrial targets and air bases. It denied targeting civilians, though its attacks have killed thousands of civilians since its invasion in February 2022.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Philippa Fletcher)