NEW DELHI: At least 20 people were killed on Monday in Russian missile strikes on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, according to news agency AFP.
The attack also brought down a children's hospital, under the rubble of which several people are feared trapped.
"This is one of the worst attacks. You can see: it's a children’s hospital," Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko told Reuters as he stood near a heavily damaged building.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy has also confirmed that people are trapped under the rubble of the children's hospital.
"More than 40 missiles of various types. Residential buildings, infrastructure and a children's hospital were damaged," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Zelensky claimed that there were an unknown number of people trapped under the rubble of the Okhmatdyt children's hospital and it was not immediately clear how many had been killed.
"There are people under the rubble, and the exact number of casualties is still unknown. Right now, everyone is helping to clear the rubble –- doctors and ordinary people," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Municipal officials said earlier that at least seven people had been killed in the barrage that hit Kyiv.
In March 2022, a Russian airstrike on a Mariupol maternity hospital had killed three people that brought condemnation, with Ukrainian and Western officials branding it a war crime.
The attack comes at a time when Zelenskyy and his other officials in Kyiv have been asking the West to send more air defence systems, including Patriots, to the strife-torn country to help defend against deadly Russian bombardments.
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.
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