Zelensky blasts Modi meeting with Putin the same day Russian attack devastates

CNN
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday criticized his Indian counterpart’s visit to Moscow as a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts,” on the same day that a Russian missile smashed into a children’s hospital in Kyiv.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow on Monday, while 900 kilometers away (560 miles) Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities in a morning rush hour assault that killed at least 37 people and injured 170 others.

Modi’s two-day trip marks his first visit to Russia since Putin began his full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two and a half years ago, with images and video Monday showing the two leaders hugging, chatting over tea, riding in an electric vehicle and watching a horse show.

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Zelensky said in a post on X on Monday, referring to the deadly Russian attacks.

The large-scale daylight bombardment struck the capital Kyiv, and cities including Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Slovyansk and Kramatorsk – some of which are heavily populated areas far from the front lines.

In Kyiv, 27 people were killed, including four children, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Tuesday. Two people were killed and at least 16 others were injured in the strike on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital.

The facility is Ukraine’s largest children’s medical center and has been vital in the care of some of the sickest children from across the country.

Videos from the scene showed volunteers working with police and security services to dig through the rubble as smoke billowed from the hospital. Search and rescue operations for people potentially trapped beneath the debris continued on Tuesday.

Hospital staff said they tried to rush children to safety in the wake of the attack. Two children had been in the operating theaters at the time of the blast, and both were relocated to the basement shelter once their procedures were completed, a senior nurse told CNN. Another senior nurse said an operation on a 2-year-old was underway when the strike happened.

“The lights went out, everything went out. We pulled out the instruments, shining flashlights. Everything was sewn up quickly,” Iryna Filimonova said. “The baby was brought down (to the shelter). I immediately ran to help clear the rubble.”

United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said the blast forced medical workers to treat sick children outside the facility.

Patients were “receiving treatment for cancer in hospital beds set up in parks and on streets, where medical workers had quickly established triage areas, amongst chaos, dust and debris,” he said in a statement.

Russia’s defense ministry on Monday claimed that its forces struck “military industrial facilities of Ukraine and air bases of the Ukrainian armed forces,” with long-range, high-precision weapons. Without providing evidence, the Russian ministry also claimed that photos and videos from the hospital blast confirmed the damage was caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

Meanwhile, near the Russian capital, Modi thanked Putin for hosting him at his suburban residence, saying in a post on X, “Looking forward to our talks tomorrow as well, which will surely go a long way in further cementing the bonds of friendship between India and Russia.”

Putin is set to host official talks with Modi on Tuesday at the Kremlin. The trip is a sign that New Delhi and Moscow remain close despite Russia’s deepening dependence on China and is widely seen as the latest dent in efforts by Western leaders to cast Putin…