Fact-checking - Experts: Damage at children's clinic fits Russian rocket
The Ukraine and the UN Human Rights Office hold a Russian cruise missile, type Kh-101 (also Ch-101), responsible for the heavy damages at one of the most important children's hospitals in Kiev. However, in social media and through the Russian government, an alternative version is being spread without evidence: The Ukrainian air defense is to blame. Is it really unclear what happened at the Kinderklinik Ochmatdyt in Kiev?
Claim
A Ukrainian air defense missile of the NASAMS system hit near the Kiev children's hospital. Therefore, Russia cannot be held responsible for the attack.
Assessment
Military experts dispute Moscow's claim: Such damages could rather be caused by a Russian cruise missile of the Kh-101 type. A such missile is also visible in videos of the rocket strike.
Facts
In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, there were several rocket hits in the morning of July 8. A building near the Ochmatdyt Children's Hospital in the northwest of the city was also hit, as shown in photos from Ukrainian authorities and independent journalists. The partial collapse of a side building is clearly visible. The explosion's force damaged the nearby Y-shaped main building as well.
Many windows and parts of the approximately ten-story facade were destroyed. According to the assessment of three military experts, this damage does not fit the claim that a missile hit, as the Ukrainian Nasams air defense system uses.
For the Nasams, a system developed by Norwegian and American weapons manufacturers, Ukraine uses air defense missiles of the AIM-120 AMRAAM type. They have a warhead of approximately 20 kilograms. "The AIM-120 AMRAAM is an air defense missile designed to shoot down missiles. The warhead is designed to explode near the missile, causing shrapnel to hit it," says Markus Schiller of the German Press Agency. The expert for rocket technology teaches at the University of the Bundeswehr on long-range missiles and researches at the Swedish Sipri Institute, which among other things conducts research on global arms.
A missile causes less damage
Schiller's statements suggest that the many metal parts from this air defense missile would essentially pierce their target. Such a phenomenon is not visible at the clinic. "If a missile had hit there, one would see many small craters or depressions at the impact site caused by the shrapnel, not a half-collapsed building. It would also not generate such a large pressure wave," Schiller says. "The damage pattern clearly shows the impact of something larger."
Fabian Hoffmann, who promotes at the University of Oslo on rocket technology and nuclear strategy, also comes to the same assessment. The actual amount of explosive in a 20-kilogram warhead of an AIM-120 is limited. This would never be able to cause such extensive destruction, Hoffmann told dpa. The damage profile fits that of a Kh-101 warhead from the Russian cruise missile, which weighs approximately 400 to 450 kilograms.
Video shows cruise missile shortly before impact.
From the approach of the rocket and the moment of impact, there are at least two different eyewitness videos available. The fact that the same scene is shown from slightly different angles makes manipulation highly unlikely. The damage to the windows of the multi-story main building, which is about 50 meters from the impact site of the rocket, includes a large fireball and a high smoke plume. According to military expert Timothy Wright of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), these indicators suggest that it was more likely a large than a small warhead that detonated. "Based on these indicators, it is almost certain that the rocket that hit the Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital was a Russian Kh-101 and not a Ukrainian Nasams," Wright told dpa.
If you examine individual video frames of the rocket's approach more closely, you can see a dark, rectangular-shaped appendage at the rear. Wright explains what it is: "In the video, a motor is also clearly visible under the rocket casing, a feature that the Kh-101 has but the Nasams does not, as its solid-fuel motor is fully enclosed in the rocket casing." This observation is also confirmed by research from the investigative platform Bellingcat, as well as other military experts.
Characteristics do not match surface-to-air missile
While a surface-to-air missile is shaped like a dart, the rocket in the videos has more of the silhouette of a blunt torpedo - like the Kh-101 cruise missile. "Nasams reaches supersonic speeds, while the Kh-101 is much slower, which is consistent with the rocket's speed in the footage," Wright says.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice has also released evidence that a Russian rocket hit the hospital. "Specific construction features of the recovered debris fragments and corresponding typical markings indicate the use of a strategic cruise missile of the Kh-101 type," the Ministry says. In total, more than 30 fragments of the rocket were found, including parts of the engine and the wings. Previously, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) had presented photos of debris from a Kh-101 missile.
- The disputed version spread by social media and the Russian government claims that the Ukrainian air defense is responsible for the damage at the Kinderklinik Ochmatdyt in Kiev.
- The Partial collapse of a side building and significant damage to the Y-shaped main building at the Kinderklinik Ochmatdyt in Kiev are inconsistent with the capabilities of the Ukrainian Nasams air defense system's AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles.
- According to military expert Markus Schiller, the number and size of the metal parts from an AIM-120 AMRAAM warhead would cause puncture-like damage, not the extensive destruction seen at the clinic.
- Fabian Hoffmann, a rocket technology promoter at the University of Oslo, agrees that the damage profile fits that of a Kh-101 warhead from a Russian cruise missile, which weighs around 400 to 450 kilograms.
- The approach and impact of the rocket in available eyewitness videos indicate a large warhead, which is consistent with the characteristics of a Kh-101, but not the Nasams.
- Military expert Timothy Wright of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) states that the indicators from the videos suggest that it is almost certain that the rocket that hit the Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital was a Russian Kh-101 and not a Ukrainian Nasams.
- The Ukrainian Ministry of Justice has provided evidence, including more than 30 fragments of the rocket, showing that the used missile was a strategic cruise missile of the Kh-101 type, pointing towards Russian involvement in the attack.
