One of Ukraine’s top children’s cancer surgeons was killed by Russian missiles as she dropped off her five-year-old son at nursery yesterday, her hospital reveals
- Victim of brutal Russian missile barrage yesterday named as Oksana Leontyeva
- She was driving to children’s hospital after dropping her son at nursery school
- Dr Leontyeva was renowned oncologist who had saved countless children’s lives
- President Zelenksy branded Russia a ‘terrorist state’ after the attack
One of Ukraine’s top children’s cancer surgeons was killed in Russia’s brutal missile barrage yesterday just after she had dropped her five-year-old son off at nursery school.
Dr Oksana Leontyeva was killed in her car as she ‘hurried to see her patients’ while driving down one of Kyiv’s busy boulevards in the city centre, her hospital said.
The indiscriminate attack was part of Russia’s biggest missile bombardment on Ukraine since its illegal invasion in February, killing 19 people and injuring scores more in strikes in cities.
Dr Leontyeva was a renowned oncologist who had saved countless children’s lives performing bone-marrow transplants for the last 11 years at Okhmatdyt, Kyiv’s top children’s hospital.
Her death has left her son, Gregory, an orphan after his father was killed over a year ago, according to the hospital. He will now be raised by his grandfather.
The hospital eulogised Dr Leontyeva as ‘a true professional and a source of support for her patients and colleagues’, describing her death as a ‘big loss for Okhmatdyt and the whole of Ukraine’.
‘With pain in our hearts, we inform you that as a result of rocket shelling in Kyiv killed doctor Ohmatditu Oksana Leontyeva.
Renowned oncologist and children’s cancer surgeon Dr Oksana Leontyeva was announced as one of the casualties killed in Russia’s indiscriminate missile bombardment of Ukraine yesterday
Dr Oksana Leontyeva was killed in her car as she ‘hurried to see her patients’ while driving down one of Kyiv’s busy boulevards in the city centre, her hospital said today
A medical worker runs past a burning car after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct 10
Dr Leontyeva’s death has left her son, Gregory, an orphan after his father was killed over a year ago – he will now be raised by his grandfather
‘She worked in a bone marrow transplant unit for 11 years. Oksana saved children with blood cancer.
‘Oksana’s life was taken by a Russian rocket, her car burned to the ground in the middle of Kiev.
‘Many innocent people including children were killed and injured because of this horrible terrorist attack.’
The surgeon was described by colleague Anna Brudna as someone who ‘always had a story up her sleeve’, enjoyed mushroom-picking and ‘always looked for good things in people,’ according to The Telegraph.
She added that the doctor ‘had experience in unique clinical cases’ and was ‘a reliable colleague who would never let you down’.
Another colleague, Kateryna Zahorna, praised Dr Leontyeva for ‘saving children with cancer, giving happiness to parents and a new lease of life for the children’.
A defiant Volodymyr Zelenksy branded Russia a ‘terrorist state’ after the attack and said it showed the Kremlin is desperate as it is ‘not capable of opposing us on the battlefield’.
Zelensky said that despite the strikes Ukraine had managed to shoot down half of the missiles and drones aimed at his country, adding his people ‘cannot be intimidated’.
Vladimir Putin claimed yesterday that the missiles were aimed at military, energy and communications networks, but Ukraine says they actually hit power plants and busy civilian areas.
The attacks are thought to be retaliation for an attack on the Kerch Bridge on Saturday which linked the annexed region of Crimea to the Russian mainland.
The attacks have killed at least 19 people and left scores more injured. Pictured: Burnt-out cars a result of the strikes in Kyiv yesterday
President Zelensky said the strikes show that Russia cannot match Ukraine on the battlefield. Pictured: A man watches smoke rise after a missile attack in Lviv yesterday
KYIV: Cars burn on the streets of the Ukrainian capital yesterday morning after multiple missiles struck the city – the first time in months that it has been hit as Putin exacts revenge for strikes on the Kerch Bridge
KYIV: An ambulance worker treats a civilian who was cut by flying shrapnel during a missile strike on the Ukrainian capital
Some 84 Russian missiles were launched at Ukraine yesterday morning in combination with Iranian drones, striking power stations, water supplies and civilians across the country – killing at least 14 and wounding scores more
The 12-mile-long bridge was a key part of the Kremlin’s supply chain, and its destruction was a slap in the face for Russian president Putin who saw it as a pet project and a symbol of his supremacy in the region.
At least 19 people were killed and 97 wounded, with six of those deaths and 51 injuries in Kyiv alone. Rockets also hit the German consulate, but the building was empty.
A mixture of missiles and Iranian-made suicide drones were used to strike the cities of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, northern Kharkiv and Sumy, central Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia, and even far-western Ternopil and Lviv, President Zelensky said. Some of these cities have not been hit in months.
Dramatic dash-cam footage taken in Dnipro shows two of the huge missile strikes hitting a civilian area, causing fiery explosions that sent debris crashing down on cars and pedestrians nearby.
Putin said he ordered strikes on ‘military, communications, and energy infrastructure’ after what he called ‘terrorist’ attacks by Ukraine – pointing to the Kerch Bridge attack but also accusing Kyiv of bombing one of its own nuclear plants, attacking gas pipes and assassinating officials and journalists.
In Russia allies of Putin have warned that this is merely the ‘first episode’ of the country’s revenge for the blast which crippled the Crimean bridge and ‘there will be others’.
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