Who looks better with the horse? President Putin in his stable,&nbsp;a few hours after his cruise missile destroyed Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital, Okhmatdyt? Or my son, George, pausing from leading Mopsy the pony on Wednesday?



Thanks to midnight surgery at Okhmatdyt after an accidental fall three years ago in Kyiv, George now has full use of both arms and what was a broken elbow. In the days after the three hours of surgery, I would roll George, then 5 years old, through the well-tended gardens of Okhmatdyt. In Kyiv’s summer heat, we sought out&nbsp; fresh air, sunshine, and flowers — a respite from erratic air conditioning in a state-run hospital.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/george-brooke-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/george-brooke-300x225.jpg 300w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/george-brooke-768x576.jpg 768w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/george-brooke-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/george-brooke-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" class="wp-image-222283" alt="" src="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/george-brooke-1024x768.jpg" height="768" width="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The author’s son George with Mopsy. Via James Brooke</figcaption></figure>



This week, I studied the photos from wreckage created by Monday’s direct hit by a Russian Kinhzal — Dagger — missile. Near the flower beds, where parents used to go for cigarette breaks,&nbsp; bewildered children stood with their mothers. Their bald heads and portable drips meant they were cancer patients. Mothers sat on plastic chairs with their toddlers, patiently awaiting evacuation.



The missile apparently was programmed with the hospital’s coordinates. It hit&nbsp;mid-morning Monday, a time when 627 children were being treated. Thanks to air raid sirens and mass scrambles to shelters, the death toll seems to be only four children and two adults. Dozens of children were wounded.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-300x200.jpg 300w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-144x96.jpg 144w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-768x512.jpg 768w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" class="wp-image-221371" alt="Rescuers and volunteers clean up the rubble and search victims after Russian missile hit the country's main children hospital Okhmadit during massive missile attack on many Ukrainian cities in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 8, 2024. A major Russian missile attack across Ukraine killed at least 20 people and injured more than 50 on Monday, officials said, with one missile striking a large children’s hospital in the capital, Kyiv, where emergency crews searched rubble for casualties." src="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ukraine-strike-1024x683.jpg" height="683" width="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The aftermath of a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, July 8, 2024. AP/Efrem Lukatsky</figcaption></figure>



Svitlana Lukyanchuk, a 30-year-old pediatric nephrologist, was killed by the blast after she shepherded children before her into an underground shelter. Recently married, Dr. Lukyanchuk was buried Wednesday in her native Lviv.



Of the children of Okhmatdyt, Ukraine’s Health Ministry says nearly 100 children were evacuated to other hospitals in Kyiv, 68 children remain in&nbsp; surviving buildings of Okhmatdyt for treatment; and about 450 were sent home. Some await transfer abroad.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img sizes="(max-width: 449px) 100vw, 449px" srcset="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-12-at-6.38.40-AM-3.png 449w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-12-at-6.38.40-AM-3-263x300.png 263w" class="wp-image-222272" alt="Lukyanchuk" src="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screen-Shot-2024-07-12-at-6.38.40-AM-3.png" height="513" width="449" loading="lazy" decoding="async"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A 30-year-old pediatric nephrologist killed in the attack on a children’s hospital at Kyiv, Svitlana Lukyanchuk. Via Telegram Channel of Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi</figcaption></figure>



Meanwhile, in Moscow, almost 500 miles to the north, President Putin was celebrating Russia’s annual July 8 holiday, known as “Family, Love, and Fidelity Day.” Mr. Putin explained that “for us, for the state, there can be nothing more important than strengthening the family,” surrounded, Stalin-style, by smiling Russian children.



A few hours later,&nbsp; Russia’s president welcomed India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, for a rare visit to Moscow by a foreign head of state. The destruction of the Ukrainian children’s hospital took place while Mr. Modi was midair, in Air India One, the government Boeing that carried him from New Delhi to Moscow.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Putin-horseback-russia.jpg 1024w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Putin-horseback-russia-300x209.jpg 300w, https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Putin-horseback-russia-768x535.jpg 768w" class="wp-image-121741" alt="President Putin during a trip in Siberia's Tuva region, August 15, 2007." src="https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Putin-horseback-russia.jpg" height="713" width="1024" loading="lazy" decoding="async"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">President Putin during a trip in Siberia’s Tuva region, August 15, 2007. AP/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Presidential Press Service</figcaption></figure>



Ensnared in an image trap, the Indian leader went ahead with the visit. As the world press filled with images from the bombed out hospital, Mr. Putin offered a softer image — a photo op of the two leaders touring the presidential stables.



The goal of the Indian leader’s visit to Moscow was to slow a growing alliance between Russia and China. However, at the farewell press conference, he did muster the courage to say in Hindi: “When innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds, and that pain is very terrifying.”

President Putin, right, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit a stable at Novo-Ogaryovo residence, outside Moscow, July 8, 2024. 

A Tale of Two Horses; New York Sun Correspondent Recalls Kyiv’s Destroyed Children’s Hospital

A strike on a children's hospital at Kyiv comes as Putin celebrates 'Family, Love, and Fidelity Day.'

A Tale of Two Horses; New York Sun Correspondent Recalls Kyiv’s Destroyed Children’s Hospital | The New York Sun

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A Tale of Two Horses; New York Sun Correspondent Recalls Kyiv’s Destroyed Children’s Hospital

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