An airstrike by Russian military forces devastated a maternity hospital Wednesday in the city of Mariupol. This comes amid warnings from the West that the invasion is about to take a much more brutal turn.
At least 17 people were reported injured in the attack, with the ground shaking more than a mile away from the bombing site. With most windows blown out and the front of one building ripped away, police and soldiers have rushed to the site to help victims.
Among them was a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher. Others carried their children, some of them newly born, away from the blast crater.
The act was condemned by Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police officer, who said that ‘today, Russia committed a huge crime. It is a war crime without any justification.’
This isn’t the only medical facility impacted by the invasion as in Zhytomyr, a city of 260,000 people to the west of capital Kyiv, two hospitals were bombed. One of them was a children’s hospital, and thankfully, no one was wounded.
However, president Zelenskyy did reveal that some children were trapped under the rubble. ‘A children’s hospital and a maternity hospital. How did they threaten the Russian Federation?’ asked Zelenskyy.
‘What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?’ Zelenskyy urged the West to impose more sanctions so that Russia does not continue the genocide.
As many flee Ukraine into neighbouring countries or further away, the WHO said it has confirmed 18 attacks on health facilities and ambulances since the fighting began, killing 10 people. Despite this, Russian forces are still struggling more than expected.
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Photo Source: CNN