Emergency UN Security Council Meeting After Missle Destroys Ukraine Children Hospital

In the wake of Monday’s attacks on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital and other sites across Ukraine, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya today (9 Jul) told the Security Council that “hospitals have special protection under international humanitarian law,” and “intentionally directing attacks against a protected hospital is a war crime, and perpetrators must be held to account.”Msuya said these incidents “are part of a deeply concerning pattern of systematic attacks harming healthcare and other civilian infrastructure across Ukraine,” which she said, “have intensified since the spring of 2024.”The humanitarian official described the situation of women and children in Ukraine, noting that “access to medical care for women and girls – including maternal and reproductive health care – is severely restricted.”She said, “thousands of children continue to have daily lessons in bunkers, 20 feet below the ground. And for everyone, the constant fear caused by this war is having a serious impact on mental health.”Msuya said, “for more than two years now, people across all of Ukraine have shown remarkable fortitude and resilience in unbelievably challenging circumstances. However, yesterday’s attacks and their impacts are a reminder of the deplorable human toll of this war, particularly on the most vulnerable members of society – tragedies we will see again and again as long as this conflict continues, and the rules of war are defied.”Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the Council that photos and videos show the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital was hit by “a missile of the Ukrainian Air Defence.”Nebenzya spoke of “verbal gymnastics, demonstrated today by Western members of the Security Council, trying by any means to protect the Kyiv regime” and said today’s Council meeting was “an excellent opportunity to tell the truth about what actually happened.”He said those Council Members had “tried to engage in wishful thinking by condemning the allegedly intentional strike of the Russian air force against the children's medical.”For his part, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya noted that “at least 47 people were killed and more than 190 were wounded following yesterday's strike,” and said, “Putin's envoy employed his usual tactics of denying reality and blaming Ukrainian Air Defence.”He pointed to “clear footage of the Russian missile approaching the hospital, the scale of the destruction, and the eyewitness accounts” and said Nebenzya’s “comments about the possibility to destroy it entirely if Russia supposedly hit it, is just monstrous.”According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) more than 14.6 million people – or about 40 per cent of Ukraine’s population – require some form of humanitarian assistanceBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/policy-and-rights--3339563/support.