Ukrainian resolve only strengthened after horrific attacks - Steve Cardownie

Volunteers, including medics, help emergency and rescue personnel to clear the rubble of a destroyed building at Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital following a Russian missile attack in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on July 8, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo: Roman Pilipey/Getty Images)

My Ukrainian relatives, now safely domiciled in Edinburgh, have witnessed on their TV screens yet another bloody atrocity perpetrated by Putin and his cohorts in Moscow. Every time that there is a glimmer of hope that they might soon be able to return to their homeland it is dashed by the continued attacks on civilians by the Russian armed forces.

A day of mourning was held in Ukraine yesterday as the death toll of the recent Russian missile onslaught continued to rise.

With at least 41 people killed and 166 injured already work is underway by rescuers who are digging their way through the rubble in a desperate search for any survivors who may be trapped under the wreckage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described the attack as “brutal” and has rightly labelled Putin as a “bloody criminal”.

He declared that Russia had launched more than 40 missiles on Monday, damaging almost 100 buildings in Kyiv, Dnipro and elsewhere.

Kyiv’s Mayor, Vitali Klitschko said that the attacks on Kyiv were the worst since the beginning of the war and ordered flags to be flown at half-mast as entertainment events throughout the city were cancelled.

Pictures were beamed all over the world (no chance of any coverage in Russia of course) of children outside Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital – which specialises in cancer treatment and organ transplants – hooked up to IV drips waiting for evacuation to another hospital.

UK Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer, remarked that “attacking innocent children” was “the most depraved of actions” as he promised continued support for Ukraine. US President Joe Biden called the missile strikes a “horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality” as he pledged more aid for Ukraine’s air defence systems.

Given the recent General Election campaign and the ongoing horrifying situation in Gaza it is understandable that the war in Ukraine has not been attracting the kind of news coverage that we witnessed when the Russians invaded in February 2022 but the nightmarish events in Ukraine have not abated as this recent atrocity so aptly reminds us.

What Putin saw as a short military campaign where Ukrainians would put up little resistance to his invading army has turned out to be a disastrous miscalculation of their level of resolve and determination to repel the invaders as has been demonstrated since the first Russian tanks crossed the border.

My good friend from Ukraine, Yuri, who formerly served as a tank commander in the Soviet Army, assures me that, despite the continuing bloody attacks by the Russian Armed Forces on civilian targets, Putin will not prevail, and Ukraine will not succumb. He has been active in assisting the war effort, transporting supplies and medical equipment to isolated villages which desperately need them.

He told me that Ukrainians are not demoralised and that Russia’s tactic of targeting civilian centres only strengthens their resolve – it does not weaken it!