In a diplomatic twist, Russia presides over a UN meeting condemning its attack on a children’s hospital in Ukraine.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — On Tuesday, members of the U.N. Security Council confronted Russia regarding a missile strike that had destroyed part of Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital the day before. The strike, which killed at least two hospital staffers, drew widespread condemnation at an emergency meeting chaired by Russia’s own ambassador.

Russia has denied responsibility for the strike on the hospital. France and Ecuador requested the Security Council session, but Russia led it as the current holder of the council’s rotating presidency, placing Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia at the center of the criticism.

“Mr. President, please stop this war. It has been going on for too long,” appealed Slovenian Ambassador Samuel Zbogar.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressed her colleagues, emphasizing that they were there because “Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council and its current rotational president, attacked a children’s hospital.” She added, “Even uttering that phrase sends a chill down my spine.”

Nebenzia dismissed the criticisms as “verbal gymnastics” from nations attempting to protect Ukraine’s government. He maintained that the hospital was struck by a Ukrainian air defense rocket, not a Russian missile. “If this had been a Russian strike, there would have been nothing left of the building,” Nebenzia said, adding that “all the children and most of the adults would have been killed, and not wounded.”

The strike on Okhmatdyt children’s hospital was part of a broad daytime assault on multiple cities, including Kyiv. Officials reported that at least 42 people were killed, and the attack also damaged Ukraine’s main specialist hospital for women and key energy infrastructure.

Dr. Volodymyr Zhovnir, a cardiac surgeon and anesthesiologist at Okhmatdyt, described the chaos to the Security Council via video from Kyiv: “The ground shook and the walls trembled. Both children and adults screamed and cried from fear, and the wounded from pain,” he said. “It was a real hell.”

Later, he heard cries for help from beneath the rubble. Zhovnir noted that most of the over 600 young patients had been moved to bomb shelters, except those in surgery. Over 300 people were injured, including eight children, and two adults died, one of whom was a young doctor.

Acting U.N. humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya emphasized to the Security Council that intentionally attacking a hospital constitutes a war crime. She described Monday’s strikes as part of a concerning pattern of systematic attacks harming healthcare and other civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.

Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. World Health Organization has verified 1,878 attacks affecting healthcare facilities, personnel, transport, supplies, and patients, Msuya reported.

Several council members expressed shock over Monday’s strike. British Ambassador Barbara Woodward labeled it “cowardly depravity,” while Ecuadorian envoy José De La Gasca called it “particularly intolerable.” To Slovenia’s Zbogar, it was “another low in this war of aggression.”

Woodward and others reiterated longstanding calls for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine. However, nations with closer ties to Moscow issued more restrained responses. Chinese Deputy Ambassador Geng Shuang expressed concern about civilian casualties and infrastructure damage, urging both sides to show “rationality and restraint” and start peace talks.

Russia continues to deny targeting civilian sites in Ukraine despite substantial evidence to the contrary, including from AP’s reporting.

Earlier Tuesday in Geneva, Danielle Bell, head of a U.N. team monitoring human rights in Ukraine, said the hospital was likely hit by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.

At U.N. headquarters, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya presented the Security Council with photos of what Ukraine claims are fragments proving the missile’s Russian origin, along with a map showing a missile’s path from Russian territory to the children’s hospital.

“Yesterday, Russia deliberately targeted perhaps the most vulnerable and defenseless group in any society: children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses,” Kyslytsya said.

Kyslytsya criticized Nebenzia for presiding over the council session after such bloodshed. Nebenzia, in a dry tone, responded, “In accordance with the traditions of the council presidency, and purely as the president of the council, I am compelled to thank Ukraine for their statement.”