United Nations: UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday condemned the bombing of a children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, calling it “horrific”. “Today’s attack on a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, where maternity & children’s wards are located, is horrific. Civilians are paying the highest price for a war that has nothing to do with them. This senseless violence must stop. End the bloodshed now,” he tweeted. Ukraine accused Russia of carrying out the bombardment on the medical facility when a ceasefire was meant to be in place. As per Donetsk region police, according to preliminary information at least 17 people were injured, including mothers and staff, as a result of the attack. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky stated the attack as an “atrocity.” “Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,” he said on Telegram. “Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” Zelensky said, adding, “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?” Later Wednesday, Zelensky called the strike “final proof, proof of a genocide of Ukrainians taking place.” The attack came despite Russia agreeing to a 12-hour pause in hostilities 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.” Zelensky repeated his call for the NATO military alliance to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine, as he expressed his outrage at the attack. “Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,” he said on Telegram. “Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” Zelensky said, adding, “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?” “final proof, proof of a genocide of Ukrainians taking place”, he added. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian forces had “equipped combat positions” within the hospital. Video from the hospital after the bombing clearly showed there were both patients and staff there, including heavily pregnant women who were carried from the hospital. The hospital attack received international condemnation, with the United Nations saying it would follow up “urgently” on the “shocking reports,” and that healthcare facilities hospitals and health care workers should not “ever, ever be a target”, CNN reported. UNI JNA
