Russia Accused Of Genocide After Bombing Another Hospital, At Least 17 Injured In Mariupol
Ukrainian authorities have said that a Russian airstrike has devastated a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol leaving at least 17 people injured.
"Today Russia committed a huge crime,'' said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the ruins. "It is a war crime without any justification.''
The ground shook more than a mile away when the Mariupol complex was hit by a series of blasts that blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building. Police and soldiers rushed to the scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher as light snow drifted down on burning and mangled cars and trees shattered by the blast.
In Zhytomyr, a city of 260,000 to the west of Kyiv, bombs fell on two hospitals, one of them a children's hospital, Mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said on Facebook. He said the number of casualties was still being determined. His report could not be independently confirmed.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Mariupol strike trapped children and others under the rubble.
"A children's hospital. A maternity hospital. How did they threaten the Russian Federation?'' Zelenskyy asked in his nightly video address, switching to Russian to express his horror at the airstrike. "What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?''
The World Health Organization said it has confirmed 18 attacks on health facilities and ambulances since the fighting began, killing 10 people. It was not clear if that number included the assault on the maternity hospital.
This comes as the war in Ukraine has entered its 14th day.
Despite making significant ground, over the past two weeks, Russia has failed to take major cities including capital Kyiv amid the stiff resistance from the Ukrinian forces.
According to President Zelensky at least 35,000 civilians were evacuated from besieged Ukrainian cities on Wednesday.
More than 5,000 people were evacuated a day earlier from Sumy, a city of 250,000 that lies close to the Russian border and has been the scene of heavy fighting.
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