The attack on maternity hospital comes despite Russia agreeing to a 12-hour ceasefire to allow refugees to evacuate a number of towns and cities.
As Ukraine-Russia war enters Day 15, the Russian forces have intensified their attack on the Ukrainian cities, not sparing even hospitals and residential areas. In a shocking incident on Wednesday, Russian forces bombed a maternity and children's hospital in southern Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described this attack as an 'atrocity'. The attack comes amid Russia agreeing to a 12-hour ceasefire to allow refugees to evacuate a number of towns and cities. Mariupol city council posted a video of the devastated hospital in the city and accused Russian forces of dropping several bombs on it from the air.
"The destruction is enormous," said the council. "The building of the medical facility where the children were treated recently is completely destroyed," he added. According to preliminary information at least 17 people were injured, including mothers and staff.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said people were trapped under the wreckage, and called the attack a war crime. He also posted footage apparently from inside the hospital which shows the intensity of the damage caused by the bombings.
"Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital," Zelenskyy said. "People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?," he questioned.
Zelenskyy called the strike 'final proof, proof of a genocide of Ukrainians taking place'.
"What kind of a country is Russia, that it is afraid of hospitals and maternity wards and destroys them?" he asked. Meanwhile, the White House condemned the 'barbaric' use of force against innocent civilians. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted, "There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless."
Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces for several days, and repeated attempts at a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave have broken down.
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