Russia Ukraine War Updates: A children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been destroyed by Russian airstrikes, the city council said in an online post on Wednesday. “The Russian occupying forces have dropped several bombs on the children’s hospital. The destruction is colossal,” it said, adding that it did not yet know any casualty figures. Reuters said that it could not immediately verify the authenticity of the claim, while Russia denied targeting civilians in its assault on Ukraine.
Reacting to the airstrikes, Ukraine President Zelinskyy tweeted, “Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children, are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice to ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power, but you seem to be losing humanity.”
Russia will achieve its goal of ensuring Ukraine’s neutral status and would prefer to do that through talks, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharov said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Moscow’s aims do not include overthrowing the Kyiv government, and it hopes to achieve more significant progress in the next round of talks with Ukraine, Sakharov told a briefing. Meanwhile, Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that Russian armed forces have agreed to hold fire along humanitarian corridors from 9 am to 9 pm local time (7 am-7 pm GMT) on Wednesday. In a separate incident, at least 10 people were killed in a Russian military attack in the eastern Ukrainian town, reported news agency AFP quoting a local official.
The president tweeted that children were among people "under the wreckage", calling the strike an "atrocity".
Mariupol's city council said the maternity and children's hospital had been destroyed, adding that it did not know any casualty figures but that "the destruction is colossal".
The governor of Donetsk region said 17 people, including women in labor, were wounded in the airstrike.
The governor added that the airstrike happened during an agreed ceasefire period to allow civilians to safely escape.
And video footage from the hospital shows bloodied pregnant women being brought out on stretchers.
In the grounds there is a huge crater, estimated to be about 20ft deep and 30ft wide. According to former senior RAF Office Air Marshall Edward Stringer, the crater seems to be evidence of a large, general-purpose bomb of at least 1,000lbs - probably 2,000lbs.
He told Sky News this was not likely to be a cluster bomb and is more likely to have been a sophisticated missile.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has condemned the attack and said the UK is exploring more support for Ukraine to defend itself, adding: "We will hold Putin to account for his terrible crimes."
It comes as the UN human rights office has verified 1,424 civilian casualties since Russia invaded two weeks ago - with 516 people killed and 908 injured.
The southern port city of Mariupol is surrounded by Russian troops and has been subject to heavy shelling for days, leaving thousands of people without food, water and electricity.
The Ukrainian government said 1,170 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since Russia began its invasion, citing the city's deputy mayor.
People in the city have been forced to get water from melting snow, while some bodies lay in the street from intense bombardment.
Yesterday, a six-year-old girl named Tanya died alone from dehydration in the ruins of her home in the city after her mother was killed in shelling by Russian forces, Ukrainian authorities said.
Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors largely failed because of what the Ukrainians said were Russian attacks.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a telephone call with Germany's chancellor, accused militant Ukrainian nationalists of hampering the evacuations.
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