HomeWorldUkraine: Bombed on January 1, Kherson Children's Hospital Wants to Continue Treating

Ukraine: Bombed on January 1, Kherson Children’s Hospital Wants to Continue Treating

Kherson Children’s Hospital was bombed by the Russian military in the first seconds of 2023. BFMTV was able to go there and speak to shocked staff who ensure the facility can continue to function despite the damage.

New Year’s bells were still ringing when the Kherson Children’s Hospital was heavily shelled by Russian artillery. The attack left no victims despite the fragility of the young patients: in an incubator, a baby born six days ago already seems like a miracle of war. After the attack, eight impacts and more than 700 broken glass were recorded.

There was “a lot of destruction: broken windows, partially destroyed walls, doors too. And the children were there, as well as the staff. The strikes were specifically aimed at the hospital buildings,” says Oleksy Matchenko, the hospital’s deputy chief physician. hospital.

In the section that normally houses children from two to 18 months, the walls and windows are partially destroyed and rubble now covers the floor. Fortunately, he was evacuated at the first alert.

A “terrifying” bombardment

“For us it is terrifying. And I don’t think just for us, but for all of humanity. It’s terrible. “, shares Natala Mlutikova, the head of the newborn service, before being interrupted by a distant detonation. “And continues, “he lets go of a lump in her throat.

Natala Mlutikova, head of the newborn ward at Kherson Children's Hospital, walks through the rubble in a building for children aged two to 18 months that was evacuated before being hit by shelling.
Natala Mlutikova, head of the newborn ward at Kherson Children’s Hospital, walks through the rubble in a building for children aged two to 18 months that was evacuated before being hit by shelling. © BFMTV

From the first impacts, it was one of the nurses, on duty that night, who took all the hospitalized children to the basement of the hospital, sheltered from the bombardments.

“Yes, they were afraid, but we calmed them down. They told me: ‘what is that, thunder?’, And I answered: ‘yes, of course it is thunder, everything is fine, come down with us’”, she says.

Targeting health infrastructure, a Russian strategy

Since the liberation of Kherson, the doctors with whom the BFMTV correspondents present on the spot have been able to exchange reports of daily strikes in hospitals. Under international law, this is a war crime.

These bombings are reminiscent of others, notably that of the Mariupol children’s hospital, which killed three people, including a girl, on March 10. In November, the WHO sounded the alarm after accounting for more than 700 attacks on health facilities since the start of the war.

Author: Nicolas Coadou, Alizée Boisset with Glenn Gillet
Source: BFM TV

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