Operations on children were interrupted, small cancer patients had to be evacuated, and an entire block was filled with debris.
It is believed to have been a Russian robot that struck directly into Ukraine's largest children's hospital in central Kiev on Monday.
A long, slender robot is seen striking directly into the children's hospital Ochmatdyt's facility in central Kiev, in an unverified video clip recorded by a person nearby, during Monday's extensive Russian attack.
Facades of the hospital's multi-story buildings were blown out, and a thick, gray smoke cloud rose towards the sky.
Analysis of the video material and assessments made on site suggest that the probability is high that the children's hospital was hit directly, says Danielle Bell, who leads the UN's human rights observers in Ukraine (HRMMU), according to AFP.
She wants to clarify that the robot does not appear to have been shot down or deflected by Ukraine's air defense.
Based on the video clip and Ukrainian images of robot debris, it appears that the robot was a Russian Ch-101, a cruise missile launched from aircraft in the air.
"Don't understand it"
Ochmatdyt is Ukraine's largest children's hospital and primarily receives seriously ill children, including cancer patients. 670 child patients and over a thousand healthcare staff were there when it happened. Many are said to have made it down to the bomb shelter when the air raid alarm sounded a few minutes in advance.
A woman tells Dagens Nyheter that she was sitting in one of the hospital's corridors, waiting for her son to wake up after an operation.
Luckily, the operation was already over when it happened. They rolled him out into the corridor, he was still anesthetized. We took him out, she says to the newspaper's reporter in Kiev.
An intensive care chief at the hospital speaks with Svenska Dagbladet's correspondent, wearing a blood-stained doctor's coat and with glass splinters embedded in different parts of his body.
I really thought this was the last place that would be attacked. We help children and we have no military patients at all. I don't understand it, he says to the newspaper.
Searching for the dead
A large rescue and search operation was still underway on Tuesday in the rubble at the children's hospital. So far, two have been found dead there.
Russia attacked at least five cities in Ukraine with robots in Monday's extensive attack waves. Tens of people are reported to have been killed and over a hundred injured, according to Ukrainian authorities, who are updating the death toll continuously.
Russia's government claims that it was a Ukrainian robot that struck. They consistently deny that Russian forces are attacking civilians, despite it being well-documented in very many cases throughout the war.
