Czechia calls Russia "trash of humanity"

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský instructs his ministry to tell the Russian ambassador to Czechia that bombing children’s hospitals makes Russians the trash of humanity.

As Czech outlet Seznam Zpravy reports, Lipavský, who is on a visit to the United States, instructed his staff to summon Russian Ambassador Alexander Zmeevsky after the attack on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv.

"Murderers who attack children in hospitals are the trash of humanity. [Zmeevsky] was instructed to convey this to Moscow," Lipavský said.

In a commentary to Seznam Zpravy, Zmeevsky, after being summoned to the Czech Foreign Ministry, repeated the Russian claim that "it was not a Russian missile, it was a Ukrainian missile" and said that the meeting at the ministry went "as usual".

Seznam Zpravy reported that this was the third time since the beginning of the year that the Russian ambassador has been summoned to the Czech Foreign Ministry: the first time was in February, in connection with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death, and the second in early May, after a series of cyberattacks on Czech government institutions and critical infrastructure.

The Russians launched a strike on the Okhmatdyt National Children’s Specialised Hospital in Kyiv, and a number of other targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, on 8 July. More than 40 civilians were killed in the Russian attacks.

Debris at Okhmatdyt has been cleared on 9 July but work continues in Kyiv’s Syrets district, where two sections of a multi-storey apartment block collapsed after the Russian attack.

As of 12:15 on 9 July, 31 people have been found dead in Kyiv and 117 are known to have been injured.

The US and the EU have called for an investigation into the attack on Okhmatdyt, which could be classified as a war crime.