Russia launched its deadliest missile attack in months on Kyiv and several other cities across Ukraine on July 8, killing over 100 people, reported The Kyiv Independent.

The aerial assault targeted Kyiv, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Sloviansk, Pokrovsk, and Kramatorsk, causing significant damage to "50 civilian sites, including residential buildings, a business centre, and two medical facilities," according to the State Emergency Service.

In Kyiv alone, at least 22 people were killed and another 72 were injured. Additionally, two people were injured in Kyiv Oblast. Amongst the targets was the Okhmatdyt hospital, Ukraine's largest children's medical centre, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

The building where the children receive dialysis was destroyed. There was no immediate word on casualties at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv,. Medical staff and children were trapped under the rubble, and patients and doctors were cut by flying glass. Zelenskiy has called for an emergency UN meeting to condemn the atrocity.

“When there was the first explosion, we took the children to the dining room, and when the second one suddenly hit strongly, we took people to the bomb shelter. The ceiling collapsed, and the glass shattered. We lowered the children into the bomb shelter, and I ran to help the wounded. These were various injuries. Arms, legs, fractures, almost amputation of a finger; the head of one woman was severely injured,” Olha a medical worker at the hospital, told the Kyiv Post. Passers-by and neighbours rushed to the aid of the wounded. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack, Al Jazeera reports.

The Ukrainian authorities’ allegations about a Russian missile strike on civilian targets are untrue, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement, claiming the children’s hospital was hit by an malfunctioning Ukrainian air defence missile. 

More than 10 explosions were heard in Kyiv in the morning, as air defence systems were active in the capital's suburbs, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. Missile debris fell in the Solomianskyi, Dniprovskyi, Holosiivskyi, Desnianskyi, Darnytskyi, and Shevchenkyvskyi districts, causing extensive damage and fires in some areas.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the cities of Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih are located, 11 people were killed and 62 were injured. Buildings across these cities were damaged, and fires broke out in several districts.

A residential building in the Shevchenkyvskyi district of Kyiv was struck, damaging its entrances and destroying one of them. First responders are working to rescue people trapped under the rubble, Klitschko said.

Three transformer substations operated by DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, were destroyed or damaged, according to the company. A representative confirmed that no other energy equipment was affected.

Later in the day, during a separate attack on Kyiv, debris hit the Isida maternity hospital, killing seven people and injuring three, the State Emergency Service reported.

The Air Force reported downing three out of four cruise missiles over Zhytomyr and Cherkasy oblasts during another aerial attack in the early hours of July 8. No casualties or damage were reported in that incident.

The strikes occurred on the eve of the Nato summit in Washington, where Ukraine hopes to secure long-term aid commitments from its allies. President Zelenskiy called for international action to halt Russian attacks, stating on social media platform X, "Killing is what (Vladimir) Putin brings. Only together can we bring real peace and security."

The July 8 attack has been the deadliest in months, with casualty figures comparable to the massive strikes carried out by Russia during the winter. While Russian forces launched several large-scale attacks in the spring, those primarily targeted energy infrastructure.