Latest: An analysis of open source evidence, as well as multiple missile experts, have pointed to a Russian launched Kh-101 cruise missile being the weapon that struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv bellingcat.com/news/2024/07/0…
The July 8th attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital has left three children dead and 16 injured according to the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU). More are thought to still be under the rubble.
Shortly after the bombing, claims began to surface on social media that Russia was being wrongly blamed for the attack and that the missile was American in origin, fired by Ukraine. @jacksonhinklle, a political activist who has appeared on Russian state media, was one such voice. 
Bellingcat analysed social media footage of the attack from different angles, debris left behind amongst the rubble and created 3D models of both the Russian Kh-101 cruise and the US-made AIM-120 for comparison with the missile seen clearly within the footage.
This video, that first appeared on Telegram, clearly shows the missile that hit the hospital. The missile exhibits several characteristics, including the presence of what appears to be a jet engine at its rear as well as two short wings near the middle of the missile.
When placed side by side with 3D models of both the Kh-101 and the AIM-120, the missile clearly shares more characteristics with the Kh-101, a cruise missile used exclusively by the Russian armed forces.
The AIM-120 has a sharper nose, different fins and is missing the jet engine on the back seen in the missile video. When overlayed on video, the Russian Kh-101 model matched the shape of the missile.
After the strike, the SBU released three images claiming to show remnants of the munition that hit the hospital. They stated that preliminary findings indicated it was a Kh-101, which appeared to tally with the aforementioned video footage. ssu.gov.ua/novyny/slidchi…
The images appear to be of a support spar and engine panel. The pictures below are of the remnants found from the hospital attack compared with images from the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces’ identification manual showing remnants of a Kh-101 strike.
We found the same remnants detailed in the SBU reports, in media images from the attack. We geolocated the images from UA news website Gazeta to just outside the hospital (50.450632, 30.481437), you can see the remnants below the investigators arm.
In another SBU image of a remnant of the missile that hit the hospital, you can see markings that include the numbers “840708036”, “~234452”, and “45 • 14” . Similar markings using this format are on a remnant from a Kh-101 allegedly shot down over Ukraine on December 29, 2023.
The analysis of open source evidence points to a Russian launched Kh-101 cruise missile being the weapon that struck the children’s hospital in Kyiv yesterday.
The same conclusion was found by Fabian Hoffman (@FRHoffmann1), a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo who specialises in missile technology
https://x.com/FRHoffmann1/status/1810350033616732653
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons and missile expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California, similarly concluded in an email to Bellingcat that a Kh-101 missile could be seen in footage of the attack posted to social media sites.
The hospital attack was part of a wider Russian missile barrage that hit civilian targets elsewhere in Ukraine. In total, at least 41 people were killed as Russian missiles fell on several cities aside from Kyiv, including Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro. reuters.com/world/europe/u…
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the attack began at approximately 10:00 AM local time and involved at least 36 missiles, including 13 Kh-101 cruise missiles. This latest wave of Russian attacks against Ukraine is among the largest and deadliest in months.
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The article above has been updated to reflect a change in the translation of the number of dead. "The July 8 attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital killed two and injured 50 others, according to the hospital." facebook.com/share/p/7qtQnW…
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