Almost 40 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded across Ukraine in a barrage of Russian missile attacks – the deadliest in months.

A missile smashed into a children’s hospital in the capital, Kyiv, on Monday, trapping victims under rubble. Dozens of volunteers, doctors and rescue workers dug through debris of a part of Okhmatdyt National Children’s Specialised Hospital in a desperate search for survivors after the rare daytime bombardment.

Videos and photos from the scene of the children’s hospital showed volunteers working with police and security services to sift through the rubble as smoke billowed from the hospital, as staff described how they tried to rush children to safety in the wake of the attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated Russian forces fired more than 40 missiles at five cities, mainly in the south and east of the country as well as Kyiv.

The attacks came as Zelensky visited Warsaw before heading to the NATO summit in Washington, DC, where he was expected to appeal for more military support from the country’s allies.

Natalia Svidler, 40, was in the hospital at the time of the strike with her two-year-old son as he awaits surgery this week.

“The nurses told us to go down to the basement. After a while, we heard a loud rumble, and then the ceiling in the basement collapsed a little,” she told the AFP news agency at the scene.

“Everyone got very scared, of course. Everyone started screaming and running,” she added.

Ukrainian energy operator DTEK announced three electrical substations had been destroyed or damaged in the attack, the latest in a series of strikes that have halved the country’s energy generation capacity in recent months.

In Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, which has been repeatedly targeted by Russian bombardment, the strikes killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 40, officials confirmed.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Kremlin, but it insists its forces do not target civilian infrastructure.

Kiev’s spies offered a Russian air force pilot money and Italian citizenship if he agreed to fly the aircraft to Ukraine, the agency said in a statement on Monday.

The involvement of special services of NATO countries in the failed hijacking was uncovered, the FSB said. It did not name specific members of the US-led military bloc.

During the “operational game”, Russian counterintelligence officers were able to obtain information that helped the military to carry out a successful strike again the Ukrainian armed forces’ Ozernoye airfield, it added.

The facility is located near the city of Zhytomir in northwest Ukraine.

The FSB also published a video of the Russian pilot, who helped the agency with the operation. His identity was concealed and voiced changed in the clip.

The airman said he had been contacted on Telegram by a person who revealed he was working for Ukrainian intelligence.

According to the Russian serviceman, the man – who identified himself as Pavlo – started to threaten his relatives and demanded information about the Russian aircraft or to set the planes on fire.

Pavlo later “offered to hijack a warplane to the territory of Ukraine, and not any warplane, but a nuclear-capable strategic long-range bomber”, the pilot stated.

The Russian serviceman added that instead of cooperating with the Ukrainian spy, he “went to his superiors and told them everything”.

The clip also included screenshots of conversations between the pilot and Ukrainian officer. Judging by the texts, the reward promised to the Russian sericeman for stealing the plane was $3 million.

The FSB reported foiling a similar plot by Ukrainian intelligence in July 2022. Back then, several Russian pilots were offered up to $2 million, EU passports and a comfortable life in the West for flying their planes to Ukraine. But the airmen instead worked with Russian counterintelligence officers, helping them to obtain information about Kiev’s forces.

The Kremlin announced the FSB deserved “top marks” for carrying out the sophisticated operation. According to reports, the Ukrainians was especially interested in Su-34 fighter-bombers and Tu-22M3 strategic aircraft.