Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Russia attacks children’s hospital in Mariupol

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, denounced this Russian air attack and again called for the closure of Ukrainian airspace.

“Direct attack by Russian troops on children’s hospital. There are people, children under the rubble. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be complicit in ignoring this terror? Close the airspace now,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.

For his part, the head of the regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, posted a video on Facebook showing the extent of the damage caused.

The attack, which caused at least 17 injuries according to the Ukrainian authorities, took place while six humanitarian corridors were open for the evacuation of civilians from the cities, amid mutual accusations of breaching the truces.

Refugees

According to the head of the parliamentary faction of the Ukrainian ruling Servant of the People party, David Arajamia, During the last day, more than 40,000 civilians were evacuated from towns throughout the country where hostilities are taking place.

“In one day in the whole of Ukraine it has been possible to evacuate more than 40,000 women and children,” Arajamia wrote on Facebook. “We continue to work, the most problematic points are Mariupol, Kharkiv and the Kyiv region,” she added, without specifying from which cities the civilians were evacuated and which routes they used.

Earlier, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s humanitarian coordination center, General Mikhail Mizintsev, said that they had officially proposed to Kyiv to open ten humanitarian corridors on Wednesday and carry out the evacuation of civilians and foreign citizens from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol, and that Russian forces ceased fire from 10 a.m. local time.

More attacks in Mariupol

Some 1,300 residents of the southern city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops, have been killed by shelling and attacks since the beginning of the invasion two weeks ago, the city’s deputy mayor Piotr Andryushchenko said today.

He added that the Russian “occupiers” “have begun to actively use aerial bombardment.” “They no longer hide their goal of totally destroying the city,” the official stated.