Credit: Patrol Police Kharkiv
“Am I going to die?” the Ukrainian girl asks as she is carried out of a bombed-out nursery by rescuers.
It is just one heart-stopping moment among many, in an appalling video which shows the aftermath of a Russian attack on a nursery in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv.
The footage, filmed on Ukrainian police officers’ body cams, shows them dashing past a pile of burning rubble in the street and down into the nursery.
“Come on!” one officer calls out as he finds a little girl wearing a pink coat, before scooping her up in his arms. “I want my mum,” the child sobs in the video, and the rescuer responds: “We’ll find her now.”
Another officer finds a little girl in pink pyjamas, and picks her up as well. “What’s your name, sunshine?” he asks the girl. “Nicole,” she sniffs.
President Zelensky said the strikes “spit in the face” of all who want peace – Ukrainian Emergency Service
Moments later, the same bodycam footage shows a Ukrainian father dashing up the entrance of the nursery. “That’s my daughter,” he says breathlessly, as the rescuers hand over Nicole.
Similar scenes, of police officers racing into the gutted remains of the nursery, and then hauling children out into the street, are repeated again and again throughout the footage.
Many of those children can be heard screaming for their parents and sobbing with fear. Though none of them were physically injured, the sound is utterly chilling.
Credit: Patrol Police Kharkiv
Ukrainian officials say that Russia used drones to attack the nursery, in the Kholodnoyarkiy district of Kharkiv.
A man was killed in the attack, and 48 children who were inside at the time were treated for “distress” – but there were no more serious injuries. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said the attack was the latest example of Russia “spitting in the face” of those who believe that Russia can be trusted to sign a peace deal.
In a further update on the children’s welfare, he added: “They are receiving medical care. All children have been evacuated and are in shelters. According to preliminary information, many have an acute stress reaction.”
In one of his strongest condemnations of a Russian attack in recent months, the Ukrainian leader added: “There is and cannot be any justification for a drone strike on a kindergarten. Russia is becoming more impudent…bandits and terrorists can only be put in their place by force.”
The drone strike partially destroyed the nursery in Kholodnohirskyi district – Anadolu
The footage also includes a moment of extraordinarily grim irony: one of the little Ukrainian girls being rescued in the video is speaking in Russian. “Spasiba,” she tells a police officer.
Putin has long argued that one goal of his illegal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine is to defend the country’s Russian-speaking minorities in eastern regions such as Kharkiv.
And yet it is his army which chose to subject Russian-speaking children to unimaginable terror, when it launched the drone strike this week in Kholodnoyarkiy. Russia has not yet issued any statements about the attack.
The onslaught continued on Saturday, as Russia launched missile and drone attacks across Ukraine that killed at least four people and wounded 16 others.
Ukrainian rescuers at the nursery. The evacuated children are reportedly in acute shock – Sergey Kozlov/EPA/Shutterstock
Two people were killed and nine were wounded in a ballistic missile attack on Kyiv on Saturday morning, senior Kyiv city official Timur Tkachenko said.
“Explosions in the capital. The city is under ballistic attack,” Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, wrote on Telegram as the attack unfolded.
“Last night, Russia attacked Ukraine again – this time with dozens of attack drones and nine ballistic missiles,” Mr Zelensky said of the nationwide attack.
He said the latest aggression underlined the ongoing need for Western-delivered Patriot air defence systems “to protect our cities from this horror.”
“America, Europe, and the G7 countries can help ensure that such attacks no longer threaten lives. Russia’s ballistic strikes must be met with a response from powerful nations in real cooperation to protect lives,” he said.
On Friday, Sir Keir Starmer hosted Mr Zelensky and other European leaders in London for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, where he vowed to ramp up support for Kyiv even further.
Sir Keir told the Ukrainian leader: “We stand with you stronger than ever, united behind Ukraine and united behind president Trump in calling for the fighting to stop now and for negotiations to begin from the current line of contact.”
At the same meeting, Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of Nato, hinted that Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine point to a sense of desperation in the Kremlin.
“Hundreds of thousands of Russians are dying for Putin’s deluded aggression. Ukraine continues defending itself bravely and our support to them is working,” he said.
“The truth is that Putin is running out of money, troops and ideas. President [Donald] Trump said it very well – they should stop where they are now.”
