Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to rebuild the children’s hospital in Kyiv, which was severely damaged in a Russian missile attack earlier this week.

Mr Zelensky said in a video message that some 100 million hryvnia (about $2.45 million) had already been allocated to support the hospital, and a further 300 million hryvnia would follow.

He promised help to all families whose relatives were killed or injured in the attack.

The strike on the hospital was part of a wave of missile attacks that left more than 40 people killed and well over 100 injured across the country on Monday.

The shelling of the children’s hospital and surrounding area, which left several people dead, provoked international outrage, including at the level of the UN Security Council.

Moscow dismissed the Ukrainian response as a kind of public relations stunt.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed a stray missile from Ukraine’s own air defences for the damage to the hospital.

He said that Kyiv was trying to exploit the tragedy to coincide with Mr Zelensky’s participation in the NATO summit in Washington.

He noted that at the summit on Tuesday, NATO countries announced that more air defence systems would be delivered to Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky, who is also attending, said the air defence systems would help ward off the kind of brutal attack that hit the paediatric hospital in Kyiv. 

(dpa/NAN)