Robert Laprade, Canadian Red Cross representative, observes construction work at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv during restoration efforts, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025. The Canadian Red Cross is helping fund the rebuilding of the hospital after it was hit by a rocket on July 8, 2024. The facility is scheduled to reopen this year. Photos via The Canadian Press
The century-old hospital, Ukraine’s largest for children, is preparing to reopen after a devastating rocket strike in July 2024. The attack killed four people and left more than a dozen injured. With support from the Canadian Red Cross, the facility is finally being restored.
Workers carefully painted the trim of the Okhmatdyt children’s cardiac hospital in Kyiv, suspended high on ropes. Below them sits a broken stroller and piles of debris, as stark reminders of what happened here just one year ago.
A Close Call for Hundreds of Children
On the day of the attack, three heart surgeries were underway inside the hospital. Patients lying in beds were showered with glass as windows shattered.
“The rocket actually hit a smaller building about 100 metres away,” recalled Mykyta Ilin of the Red Cross. “Luckily, it missed the main hospital and the cardiac centre, where operations were happening.”
Even so, the damage was severe. Almost every window was destroyed. The roof collapsed in places. The building’s facade was left scarred.
Robert Laprade, left, and Sabina Voronetsa, Health coordinator for the Canadian Red Cross, talk as they observe the continuing construction at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025.
Restoring, Not Rebuilding
The hospital, a five-storey mustard-yellow building, has stood since 1894. Originally known as the Kyiv Free Cesarevych Mykola Hospital for Laborers and the Poor, it was repurposed about two decades ago into the country’s leading children’s cardiac centre. It treats up to 18,000 young patients every year.
“Our approach is not to build a new hospital,” Ilin explained. “We repair what was here, but make it better.”
Rescuers, volunteers and medical workers clean up the rubble and search victims after Russian missile hit the country’s main children hospital, Okhmadit, during a massive missile attack on many Ukrainian cities in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 8, 2024. (AP Photo)
Over the past year, workers have repainted walls, repaired the roof, and rebuilt operating rooms. Medical equipment, kept under tarps since the blast, is now being prepared for use again.
The Centre of Paediatric Heart Care
“This is the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine and the hub for cardiology and cardiac surgery,” said Sabina Voronetsa, health coordinator for the Canadian Red Cross in Kyiv.
After the attack, patients were transferred to a nearby smaller facility. But with the need for paediatric cardiac care growing every day, Voronetsa stressed that reopening cannot come soon enough. She hopes the doors will open again within a month.
The cost of repairs is estimated at $1.4 million. Of that, the Canadian Red Cross has already raised $500,000 through a special appeal.
Trauma That Lingers
The rocket strike continues to haunt both staff and patients. “Children were inside, staff were working, and suddenly they were caught in the middle of it,” Voronetsa said. “It’s horrifying that any hospital, anywhere, could be attacked.”
For Robert Laprade, who recently became the Canadian Red Cross’s country representative in Ukraine, visiting the hospital was deeply moving.
“The stories cut deep,” he said. “Children were on the operating table when the destruction happened. People were running everywhere, trying to save lives. Somehow, they managed to pull through.”
As fresh paint covers the scars of shattered walls, the memory of that day remains. Yet for the doctors, nurses, and families who depend on Okhmatdyt, the repairs mean something greater — a chance to heal and continue saving young lives despite the shadows of war.
