Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Come on, man.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 866: The Butcher’s Bill from Last Night’s Attack Includes Another Russian War Crime

War for Ukraine Day 866: The Butcher’s Bill from Last Night’s Attack Includes Another Russian War Crime

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. There is a white cross in a broken window frame. In front of it is a hispital bed with an IV stand falling across it. Wires from a broken monitor on the right are strewn on the floor with a yellow basketball on the right and teddy bear on the left. In the foreground are fragments of a Russian cruise missile, which are red, and have the "Z" war symbol. In the top of the painting in grey is written "Children's Hospital." Below that in red "Is Just Another Target for Russia" is written.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping note: Rosie is doing fine after her chemo today. Thank you all again for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations to help cover the costs of Rosie’s chemo.

Also, my Internet is out because of a lightning strike in my front yard. I’m using my phone as a hotspot, so we’re just covering the basics.

We now have the butcher’s bill from Russia’s cruise missile attack on Ukraine in the early morning hours.

This morning, Ukrainian air defenders shot down 30 missiles, including:
◾️1 Kh-47 Kinzhal missile
◾️11 Kh-101 cruise missiles
◾️12 Kalibr cruise missiles
◾️3 Iskander-M ballistic missiles
◾️3 Kh-59/Kh-69 guided air missiles

The aggressor attacked Ukraine with 38 missiles, targeting children’s hospital and apartment buildings.

Ukraine still needs more air defense systems to protect civilians and stop russian terror.

For want of a nail!

Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. One of the most important CHILDREN’S hospitals not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe. Okhmatdyt has been saving and restoring the health of thousands of children.

Now that the hospital has been damaged by a Russian strike, 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.

Russia cannot claim ignorance of where its missiles are flying and must be held fully accountable for all its crimes. Against people, against children, against humanity in general. It is very important that the world does not remain silent about this now, and that everyone sees what Russia is and what it is doing.

The Guardian has the details:

The children sat in stunned silence, their fragile bodies still tethered to medical drips outside the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in central Kyiv, where an impromptu field clinic had sprung up.

They had not long emerged from the hospital’s dark, dusty bomb shelter, and their eyes were still adjusting to the light.

A woman rushed past, cradling an infant covered with blood.

Just an hour earlier, Okhmatdyt, Ukraine’s largest paediatric clinic, renowned for its cancer treatment and a place many of the children had called home for months, had been targeted by a powerful Russian missile attack that killed at least four people and left many injured. At least 32 more died in strikes across countries.

The hospital’s toxicology ward lay in ruins, wrecked by the explosion that sent shrapnel tearing through the main hospital building, shattering its windows. One of the surgical rooms, where doctors had been operating on a child, was reduced to rubble.

Russia’s deadly strike on Monday was not the first of its kind – more than 1,700 medical facilities have been hit since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to the International Rescue Committee.

Still, the sheer brutality of the attack is certain to send shock waves across the west and prompt furious calls in Ukraine for enhanced air defences.

Hundreds of rescuers on Monday afternoon were still combing through the wreckage of the hospital’s toxicology ward, searching for those living or dead still trapped under the rubble, as the first accounts of shock and horror emerged. Outside the hospital entrance, civilians formed a human chain to help clear the rubble brick by brick.

Maria Soloshenko, a 21-year-old nurse who was in the toxicology ward during the strike, described how children – some as young as 18 months old and suffering from kidney problems – had to be hurriedly taken off dialysis and evacuated through the building’s windows.

Soloshenko recounted how she treated another nurse with an open head wound, initially failing to recognise her amid the dust, rubble and blood that covered her face.

The strike appeared to have caused most damage to the top floor of the ward, where she believed a female colleague had probably perished.

Okhmatdyt has long been a critical lifeline for Ukraine’s most severely ill children with complex diseases. Throughout the war, its doctors have faced the challenging task of saving children injured in Russian shelling while also caring for those with pre-existing conditions.

Monday’s daytime strike came when the hospital was at its busiest, said Tanya Lapshina, a nurse at the neighbouring trauma department where the facade was ripped off by the blast. She feared for a child who was undergoing open-heart surgery when the strike hit the building.

Lapshina said her ward managed to bring the children to the shelter just minutes before the strike.

“It was absolute chaos. The children were panicked, crying in the bunker. There are no words for this. It’s awful. I’m still shaking.”

Images from inside the hospital, which treats 20,000 children annually, showed bloodied children, collapsed ceilings and destroyed operating rooms.

More at the link and more on this after the jump.

Here is the video of President Zelenskyy’s joint press conference with Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland:

President Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Tusk signed a bilateral security agreement today. Here are the details: (emphasis mine)

Ukraine and Poland Have Signed a Security Agreement: the Document Enables the Interception of Russian Missiles and Drones

8 July 2024 – 14:47

In Warsaw, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk signed the Agreement on Security Cooperation between Ukraine and the Republic of Poland.

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Poland has provided our country with a total of 44 military packages of various types of weapons and ammunition worth more than EUR 4 billion. This year, Poland will provide several more military assistance packages, and according to the agreement, it is committed to continue supporting Ukraine for ten years of the document’s validity.

Poland will consider providing Ukraine with at least one additional MiG-29 squadron (minimum 14 fighter jets).

For the first time among the bilateral security agreements already signed, the document enables the interception of missiles and drones in our country’s airspace fired in the direction of Poland.

Also for the first time, the security agreement provides for the creation of the Ukrainian Legion – personnel of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine to be trained in Poland, which will be open to Ukrainian citizens temporarily residing in Poland and other countries.

The agreement includes a powerful block on cooperation in the defense industry, including the location of Polish defense companies’ production facilities in Ukraine and the exploration of additional opportunities for joint defense production.

Poland will also continue to operate the POLLOGHUB logistics hub and use the potential of the LITPOLUKRBRIG to strengthen the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The document aims to strengthen cooperation in the non-military sphere, in particular in intelligence, cybersecurity, maritime and information security, and defense of critical infrastructure.

Separate blocks of the agreement relate to economic recovery and reconstruction, border infrastructure, and the development of transit potential.

Political cooperation includes issues of European integration, implementation of Ukraine’s Peace Formula, sanctions, compensation for Ukraine’s losses, and bringing the aggressor to justice.

Poland clearly reaffirms its support for Ukraine’s EU and NATO membership.

The document was signed in furtherance of the G7 Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine, adopted in Vilnius on July 12, 2023.

In total, our country has already concluded 21 bilateral security agreements: with the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Denmark, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Latvia, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Japan, the United States, the EU, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland.

This Ukrainian-Polish agreement is far, far, far stronger than any of the other bilateral security agreements Ukraine has signed, including with the US.

The cost:

More from this morning’s strikes.

Kyiv:

The missile strike on Okhmatdyt, Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital, with what appears to be Kh-101 or a variant, is part of a deliberate strategy aimed at forcing Ukrainian civilian society into submission. This strategy is coupled with the systematic destruction of the country’s energy infrastructure. The approach is clear: deprive a modern, industrialized society of essential services like electricity, internet, and healthcare, while instilling fear for the future of children. This generated social pressure is intended to push Ukraine’s leadership into negotiations from a weakened position, allowing Russia to secure the most advantageous terms. The only way to stop this is to ensure that the consequences of such attacks outweigh any perceived benefits.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Kyiv Oblast:

Kharkiv Oblast:

If you’re wondering about the situation in Kharkiv, the air alert there has been ongoing for one day and seven hours already. Despite this, people in the comments still ask why residents weren’t in shelters during the missile or air strike. The answer lies in the relentless series of alarms and the constant threat of an attack. It is unrealistic for people to live their entire lives in shelters. These are the realities of a city whose skies are still unprotected.
#CRAMforKharkiv

 

 

 

 

Today’s missile attack at a children’s hospital in Kyiv pretty much sums things up on all that verbal diarrhea around “negotiations,” “peace missions,” and Putin’s “peace proposals.”

This was one of the most barbaric and demonstratively deliberate gestures of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Russia & Vladimir Putin are not interested in any “peace,” “the end of the conflict,” or a “compromise.”

They are interested in Ukraine’s unconditional surrender enforced via unlimited civilian terror.

They are unable to defeat Ukraine on battlefields (provided that the West stays with Ukraine and keeps sending defense aid, which is very likely); they will seek to escalate their missile attacks from trying to strip Ukraine of electricity and heating to deliberate mass killings of civilians.

I am afraid that in the coming months we’ll be seeing even more deliberate terror attacks like one from today.

Hospitals, shopping malls, large residential buildings, you name it.

I’ll be more than happy to end up being wrong with this one.

I don’t know what else needs to be a FINAL WAKE UP CALL to the Western decision-makers still having hope of going the easiest way with what Russia is doing.

No, there won’t be a moment when Putin says that he’s OK with your “territorial compromises on Ukraine” as a result of which he leaves Ukraine alone forever (and you can forget about this annoying headache and continue business as usual).

No, you can be vowing before Putin never to accept Ukraine as a NATO member on a daily basis live on TV, but this will not stop him – because it’s just about nothing but keeping Ukraine vulnerable and defenseless to a Russian invasion and occupation.

No, Putin is not to be reasoned with or traded with because he is not the one looking for peace.

He gladly uses your chronic lack of leadership, procrastination, fears, over-compromise, and reluctance to assume responsibilities and make necessary historic decisions.

For those who want to help from afar:

By the way, if you want to personally give a helping hand to the Okhmatdyt, the Kyiv children hospital attacked by Russia, you can always send your donation to the institution.

The hospital has its official charity accepting generous aid from people of good hope from around the world.

You can find all info on the hospital’s website by the link below.

As I always, I’m gladly donating, too, right now, and I invite you to do a good thing for tonight helping Ukraine under attack.

https://ohmatdytfund.org/en/donate

We leave the last word to NEIVANMADE:

And Patron!

Here I am in a military center with Ukrainian soldiers, according to russian terrorists.
Today, the vile country hit Okhmatdyt, Ukraine’s leading children’s hospital.
Children with cancer, heart conditions, and severe, almost incurable diseases—this is the only place for them. For the entire country.
I know they don’t care. But I hope you do.

Today’s strikes make it very clear that the US and its NATO allies and partners have some hard choices to make in the days ahead. I’ll write more on that tomorrow night.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    Since my Internet is out, I’m gonna go and rack out. Catch everyone on the flip.

  2. 2.

    MagdaInBlack

    Thank you, Adam. I know they’re all hard to write but this one must have been especially so. Get some rest.

  3. 3.

    Jay

    Thank you, Adam, for bearing witness.

    United 24 also has a direct donation link up.

  6. 6.

    Ksmiami

    Can we please start blasting Russia? Like yesterday? Fucking loser monstrous country.

  8. 8.

    Another Scott

    WhiteHouse.gov:

    JULY 08, 2024
    Statement from President Joe Biden on Russian Missile Strikes in Ukraine

    Russia’s missile strikes that today killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians and caused damage and casualties at Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital are a horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality. It is critical that the world continues to stand with Ukraine at this important moment and that we not ignore Russian aggression. This week, I will be welcoming President Zelenskyy and NATO leaders to Washington D.C., and I will be meeting with President Zelenskyy to make clear our support for Ukraine is unshakeable. Together with our allies, we will be announcing new measures to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses to help protect their cities and civilians from Russian strikes. The United States stands with the people of Ukraine.

    ###

    Peace and comfort to the innocents. :-(

    Thanks Adam, and everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    Jay

    @Ksmiami:

    Never going to happen, after Bucha, thousands of other war crimes, the Biden Administration and the Scholtz Administration won’t give Ukraine the weapons needed to protect them selves or “permission” to strike into ruZZia.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    I was planning to post another installment of my travelogue series, but then as I was digesting the news of the Kindzhal targeting the hospital, I learned that a friend of mine, a guy I sat and had a couple of beers with not three weeks ago, was struck by a car while walking across the street last night and died on the way to the hospital. Dude was in a crosswalk, with the light, and still struck and killed. It’s not enough to lose friends to the mortars or missiles, now it also has to be fucking cars mowing them down?

    The next installment will have to wait, I haven’t got the stomach.

  15. 15.

    Gin & Tonic

    @cain: Count yourself fortunate you can’t read russian Telegram channels. They are celebrating this.

  23. 23.

    wombat probability cloud

    @Gin & Tonic: No. Justice typically doesn’t arrive when we want it to. My comment was to mark that this may be a point of resonance for those who have not been paying attention.

  26. 26.

    Origuy

    If anyone had any doubt that the aim of the Putin regime is to wipe out the Ukrainian people, the destruction of a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital should make it clear. I studied the Russian language; I visited Moscow. I had a lot of sympathy for the Russian people before the war started. But it seems to have dissipated. The whole society is diseased.

  28. 28.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Not sure there is anything more to be said about the IDF’s ongoing conduct in Gaza:

    ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
    Israeli soldiers describe the near-total absence of firing regulations in the Gaza war, with troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, and leaving corpses on the streets — all with their commanders’ permission.
    By Oren Ziv
    July 8, 2024

    One thinks there has to be reckoning coming sooner or later for the way Israel has treated the Palestinians over the past 2+ decades, but that reckoning might exact a terrible toll on Israel. At some point in the future I think the US/UK/France/Germany will be unwilling & unable to cover for Israel & bail it out from its self-created crises.

Comments are closed.