Missile attack on Okhmatdyt: UN recognises Russian involvement, SBU provides evidence
9 July 2024 18:51
The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, Danielle Bell, said that the Russian Armed Forces destroyed the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital with a direct missile hit on Monday, 9 July. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" reports with reference to Reuters.
The human rights activist came to this conclusion after analysing the situation around Russia’s missile strike on the buildings of the children’s hospital in Kyiv.
“Analysis of the video footage and the assessment conducted at the scene of the incident indicates a high probability that the children’s hospital was hit directly, rather than damaged by an intercepted weapon system,” Bell said.
She added that her team, which visited the scene on Monday, was unable to draw a definitive conclusion, but that the missile appeared to have been launched by Russian Federation.
“The broad daylight strike was part of a series of attacks that have killed at least 41 people across Ukraine. The staff moved the children to the bunker yesterday morning when the air raid sirens first sounded, otherwise the number of victims would have been much higher,” the human rights activist concluded.
On 9 July, the SBU reported that it had received new evidence confirming that Russia had hit Okhmatdyt with an X-101 missile. In particular, a fragment of an X-101 cruise missile engine was found at the site of the tragedy.
In addition, SBU investigators found
- a fragment of the X-101 wing deployment mechanism;
- a fragment of the X-101 jamming unit;
- the middle part of the body of the X-101 cruise missile (pictured under the rubble);
- tail section fairing and a fragment of the X-101 cruise missile’s hydraulic unit;
- fragments of the engine cowling of the X-101 cruise missile with the inventory (inside) and serial numbers (outside), photos of which we officially published yesterday.
They confirm a targeted missile strike by the Russian Federation, including
- the nature of the destruction (a two-storey hospital building was completely destroyed, and the surrounding buildings have significant damage), which is typical of a X-101 warhead (400 kg). The destruction could in no way have been caused by the NASAMS system, whose warheads are about 20 times less powerful;
- the proportions, shape and size of the missile, which is captured in the publicly available videos, fully correspond to the X-101 missile, and, conversely, are not typical of SAMs, including NASAMS;
- the flight path of the missile fully corresponds to the characteristics of the X-101 (climb, or “slide”, before attacking the target, and attack at an angle of approximately 60 degrees);
- the targeting of the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital by an X-101 air-launched missile was recorded by objective radar control.
