Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in his Telegram channel that Ukraine will find every war criminal who attacked civilians with missiles and drones, and all the more so those who sought to take children's lives. According to RBC-Ukraine, in this statement the head of state veiledly indicated that Kyiv had managed to "reach" the Russian general who commanded the missile strike on the Okhmatped children's hospital in Kyiv on July 8, 2024.

The President's Statement and the Hint at Saratov

"Wherever Russian criminals are hiding, they will be found, and today there is further confirmation of this fact — confirmation on the territory of the Saratov region," Zelensky said. The president did not name the general directly, however the geographic reference to Russia's Saratov region and the context of the statement clearly point to the recent attack on a senior military officer, which RBC-Ukraine had previously reported.

According to the outlet, in Saratov region an unknown person on a motorcycle fired twice at Russian Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich. The officer sustained facial and bodily injuries and was hospitalized in a serious condition. Zelensky thus publicly linked this incident to the responsibility for the strike on the children's medical facility.

Who Is Nikolai Varpakhovich

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), it was Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich who ordered the strike on the Okhmatped children's hospital in Kyiv, and who is also implicated in other war crimes. On August 31, 2026, the SBU, together with the Office of the Prosecutor General, formally notified Varpakhovich in absentia of suspicion of involvement in the missile strike on Okhmatped. Thus, the in-absentia indictment and the subsequent presidential statement form a sequential chronology: first the legal qualification of the act, then the public acknowledgment of "retribution" on Russian territory.

Victims of the Strike on Okhmatped

According to official data, two people were killed as a result of the missile strike on the children's hospital — a young doctor and the grandfather of one of the young patients. In addition, a boy who was in critical condition in the intensive care unit at the time of the strike died; after the shelling he was transported to one of Kyiv's hospitals, where he died. These circumstances make the case one of the most resonant in the context of attacks on civilian infrastructure and children.

Contradictory Data

The open formulations contain an inconsistency in the count of victims: in some fragments of the official position the figure "two killed" (the doctor and the grandfather) is cited, while in others the death of the boy who was in intensive care and died after being transported is added. That is, the total number of victims may be interpreted as two direct fatalities from the strike, or as three when accounting for the child's subsequent death. Moreover, Zelensky did not name the general or give the exact date of the attack in Saratov, limiting himself to a veiled "confirmation on the territory of the Saratov region," whereas the direct attribution of the incident to Varpakhovich relies on SBU and RBC-Ukraine data, not on a direct presidential statement.

Significance of the Statement

Zelensky's remarks should be viewed as a public political framing around the in-absentia indictment and the incident in Saratov region: Kyiv is effectively asserting its ability to reach those responsible for attacks on civilians even on Russian territory. At the same time, the legally key element remains the in-absentia suspicion notified to Varpakhovich on August 31, 2026, while the link between the shots fired at the general and his role in the strike on Okhmatped is confirmed at the level of intelligence services and media, rather than through a direct presidential acknowledgment.