Ukrainian authorities announced a maternity hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol was bombed by Russian troops on Wednesday, marking a brutal new low in the two-week invasion.
“The direct attack of the Russian army on the maternity hospital. People and children lie under the rubble. Brutal! How long will the world be an accomplice to the horror? ” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted.
Footage shared by the country’s defense ministry shows smoke rising from the destroyed building. City Council wrote on Facebook that the devastation was “huge.”
“It’s all a complex – a maternity and children’s hospital. Many women died and were injured. We don’t know about children and babies yet”, Ukrainian MP Dmitry Gurin told BBC presenter Yalda Hakim.
The number of casualties is unknown, and it is not clear how much damage has been suffered in previous air strikes that have struck Mariupol over several days. No media independently verified Wednesday’s attack and Russia did not comment.
The Last week the hospital said it had moved patients to a basement that was turned into a bomb shelter, leaving a glimmer of hope that any remaining inhabitants might survive a possible attack.
Mariupol was hit hard during nearly the entire invasion, with Russian forces all but besieging the city, according to the British Ministry of Defense.
More than 1,000 deaths have been recorded in the city of 430,000 and Associated Press reporters reported earlier on Wednesday that the scene was grim. “The corpses lie in the streets… Hungry people break into shops in search of food and melt snow for water. Thousands of people gathered in the basements, shivering as they heard the sound of Russian artillery shells hitting this strategic port city,” the news agency reported.
Initially, Russia promised to recognize a safe evacuation corridor for civilians in Mariupol, but Ukrainian officials reported that Russian attacks prevented a rescue convoy from reaching the city.
