KYIV, Ukraine, July  8, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Russia struck cities across
Ukraine on Monday with a missile barrage that killed three dozen people and
ripped open a children's hospital in Kyiv, an assault condemned as a ruthless
attack on civilians.

       Dozens of volunteers including hospital staff and rescue workers dug
through debris from the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in a desperate search for
survivors after the rare day-time bombardment, AFP journalists on the scene saw.

 President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia launched dozens of missiles toward
five towns and cities, in the south and east of the country, as well as the
capital.

     Ukrainian officials said 33 people were killed and another 137 wounded in
the wave of 38 missiles. Three more were killed by Russian fire in Pokrovsk in
eastern Ukraine.

       The air force said air defence systems had downed 30 projectiles.
       Zelensky called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security
Council over the barrage and urged Ukraine's allies to deliver "a stronger
response to the blow that Russia has once again delivered on our population, on
our land and on our children."
       
       - France denounces 'barbaric' attack -
    
       
       The UN condemned the "unconscionable" Russian strikes while the EU slammed
Moscow for "ruthlessly" targeting civilians and the French foreign ministry
called the bombardment of a children's hospital "barbaric".

       Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the attack as "abhorrent."
       Kyiv said the children's hospital had been struck by a Russian cruise
missile with components produced in NATO member countries and announced a day
of mourning in the capital.

 Russia hit back claiming the extensive missile damage in Kyiv was caused by
Ukrainian air defence systems.

     Moscow said its forces had struck their "intended targets", which it added
were only defence industry and military installations.

       Medical staff acted quickly to move patients and personnel to the
facility's basement after air raid sirens rang out over Kyiv on Monday.

       "For some reason, we always thought that Okhmatdyt was protected," said
Nina, a 68-year-old hospital employee.

      "We were 100 percent sure that they would not hit here," she told AFP, as
she described the frantic rush as staff moved children with IV drips to the
bunker.

       Officials in Kyiv said the attack had also damaged several residential
buildings and an office block in Kyiv where AFP reporters saw cars on fire and
shredded trees in charred courtyards.
       
       - Energy sites 'destroyed, damaged' -
    
       
       DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, said three of its
electrical substations had been destroyed or damaged in Kyiv. Russian strikes
on electricity infrastructure have already halved Ukrainian  generation
capacity in recent weeks compared to one year ago.

      Russian forces have repeatedly targeted the capital with massive barrages
since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and the last major attack on
Kyiv with drones and missiles was last month.

       The emergency services said 22 people were killed in Kyiv on Monday,
including at both medical facilities hit in the attack and that another 72 had
been wounded.
       
       - Must respond 'with force' -
       
      In Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rig, which has been repeatedly targed by
Russian bombardment, the strikes killed at least 10 and wounded over 41,
officials there said.

       In Dnipro, a city of around one million people in the same region, one
person was killed and six more were wounded, the region's governor said, when a
high rise residential building and petrol station were hi

    And in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have taken a string
of villages in recent weeks, the regional governor said three people were
killed in Pokrovsk -- a town that had a pre-war population of around 60,000
people.

     "This shelling targeted civilians, hit infrastructure, and the whole world
should see today the consequences of terror, which can only be responded to by
force," the head of Ukraine's presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, wrote
on social media.

      Zelensky and other officials in Kyiv have been urging Ukraine's allies to
send more air defence systems, including Patriots, to the war-battered country
to help fend off deadly Russian aerial bombardment.

  "Russia cannot claim ignorance of where its missiles are flying and must be
held fully accountable for all its crimes," Zelensky said in another post on
social media.