Heartbreaking footage shows terminally ill orphans in Ukraine being evacuated to a bomb shelter during a Russian drone attack.
Nurses could be seen carrying the distressed children in their arms after they were forced to flee a hospice due to Vladimir Putin‘s relentless strikes targeting civilians.
The harrowing video, filmed on the night of July 9 or in the early hours of July 10, has only now appeared.
‘This is how the children were evacuated to a shelter in the Butterfly House in Chernivtsi,’ said the caption.
‘In the centre, there is the largest children’s palliative ward in Ukraine,’ said a report.
‘Each such descent into the bomb shelter for seriously ill children is a threat to life.’
The orphans could be seen lying on mats on the floor after being removed from their beds.
Some of the bewildered children cried as they were carried out of the hospital, with nurses trying to comfort them through reassuring smiles.
At least ten of the seriously ill orphans are from Kryvyi Rih – the birthplace of Volodymyr Zelensky.
Heartbreaking scenes show the forced evacuation from a hospice for seriously ill orphans – due to Vladimir Putin ‘s relentless drone strikes targeting civilians
The terminally ill children had to be rushed by medics and nurses to a bomb shelter because of the Russian attacks
The children were seen on mats on the floor after being removed from their beds due to Putin bombing
They were taken to Chernivtsi because it was felt to be safer after repeated strikes on Kryvyi Rih.
But, Putin’s latest Geran-2 drones strikes hit the area with an explosion close to the hospice which should have been their safe haven.
Tragically, this is not the first time a Russian attack has forced seriously ill children to evacuate.
Last year, a Russian supersonic missile slammed into Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital in a fierce assault that interrupted heart surgeries and forced young cancer patients to take their treatments outdoors.
At least 31 people were killed, officials said.
The daytime barrage targeted five Ukrainian cities with more than 40 missiles of different types, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 30 missiles. More than 150 people were wounded.
At the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, rescuers were seen searching for people under the rubble of a partially collapsed, two-storey wing of the facility.
Tragically, this is not the first time a Russian attack has forced seriously ill children to evacuate. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin
The harrowing footage was from the night of 9-10 July, but has only now appeared. ‘This is how the children were evacuated to a shelter in the Butterfly House in Chernivtsi,’ said the caption. Pictured: Children lying on mats in the bomb shelter. In the background a nurse appears to be comforting one of the orphans
‘In the centre, there is the largest children’s palliative ward in Ukraine ,’ said a report. ‘Each such descent into the bomb shelter for seriously ill children is a threat to life’
The horrifying attack came after child cancer patients at Okhmatdyt had their treatment interrupted after they were forced to shelter in the hospital’s basement as a result of Russian shelling in 2022.
Doctors and nurses, who are only able to provide a basic form of chemotherapy due to a lack of supplies.
‘These children suffer more because they need to stay alive to fight with the cancer – and this fight cannot wait,’ Dr Lesia Lysytsia told NBC News from the basement of Okhmatdyt, Kyiv’s largest children’s hospital.
‘If the children’s cancer treatment is interrupted further by the war, ‘our patients, they will die,’ Dr Lysytsia warned.
