BEYOND EVIL

Global outrage at Russia missile strike on innocent young patients | Doctor and three children killed in biggest Ukraine raids for months

- CHRIS HUGHES

VLADIMIR Putin was branded genocidal after turning his missiles on the most defenceless victims yet of Russia's war on Ukraine - children with cancer.

Kremlin forces targeted a kids hospital, killing a doctor and injuring seven youngsters, in one of the biggest strikes in months.

At least 36 others, including three children, died and 170 were hurt in attacks across Ukraine, sparking global outrage last night.

Terrified kids at Kyiv's Okhmatdyt Hospital were heard crying for help from beneath the rubble, while heartbreaking images showed others with drips in their arms being led away in shock by rescuers.

Some mothers carried their children away on their backs to shelters.

Marina Ploskonos, whose four-year-old son had spinal surgery last Friday, said: "My child is terrified. This shouldn't be happening, it's a children's hospital."

The intensive care unit, operating theatres and oncology departments were all damaged, officials said.

Blood spattered the floor in one room. Volunteers formed a line, passing bricks and other debris to each other as they desperately searched for children and staff.

As smoke still billowed from the shattered hospital buildings, Putin cynically called the murder mission a "special operation".

But Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said: "This is not a special operation. It's not a war. It is a genocide of the people of Ukraine.