Lawmakers urged the EU and its member states to step up efforts to hold Moscow accountable through international courts and support for Ukraine’s campaign to bring its children home.
The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sat down with author, historian, and Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, are one of the country’s biggest public events of the year. President of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland Andrej Lushnycky who sheds some light on the things Putin would rather you didn’t know about World War II.
Washington’s involvement may also help mitigate political opposition in Europe, while giving the U.S. strategic visibility over future Russian energy flows, sources told Reuters.
The agreement, signed on April 30, establishes a joint investment fund between Kyiv and Washington and grants the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's natural resources.
People clear rubble at the building of one of the largest children’s hospitals of Ukraine, ‘Okhmatdyt’, partially destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 8, 2024. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukrainian authorities on Sept. 10 announced war crime charges in absentia against Russian Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash over a deadly strike against the Ohkmadyt children's hospital in Kyiv two months ago.
Russian forces hit Ukraine's largest children's medical center on July 8, killing two adults and injuring at least 34 people, including nine children. Footage showed that the building suffered a direct hit by a Russian missile rather than being damaged by fallen debris.
Kobylash, who at the time served as Russia's long-range aviation commander, ordered the missile strike that hit the hospital, according to an investigation published by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor General's Office.
The general already faces other charges connected to the full-scale war in Ukraine, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest for attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
"The investigation established that it was him (Kobylash), who, on July 8, 2024... gave the order to a unit under his command to carry out a strike from the Tu-95MS bomber plane with a cruise missile Kh-101 against the Okhmadyt hospital's premises," Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said on Sept. 10 while speaking at the site of the attack.
Russian Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash. (Mil.ru/Wikipedia)
Kobylash gave the order at around 9:15 a.m., while the hospital was struck at 10:45 a.m., the SBU clarified.
"As part of the investigation, the SBU and the Prosecutor General's Office... talked to 112 victims and 50 eyewitnesses, conducted explosive, forensic, and other examinations, and analyzed video surveillance footage," SBU deputy head Serhii Naumiuk said.
The missile, fired from a plane of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, kept maneuvering and changing its flight path, indicating an intention to bypass Ukrainian air defenses and hit the medical facility, the SBU said.
The SBU charged Kobylash last January over "massive rocket attacks on residential buildings, hospitals, and critical infrastructure facilities in various regions of Ukraine."
In March 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Kobylash and Russian Admiral Viktor Sokolov for ordering strikes against the Ukrainian electricity infrastructure during the winter of 2022 to 2023, which led to extensive blackouts across the country.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Martin Fornusek
