Targeting civilian facilities, the air attack demolished a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital, both located in downtown Mariupol, according to the city council, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
“The children’s hospital, which until recently had been treating patients, is completely destroyed and injuries to children are being assessed,” the council said in a statement.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack on Twitter, posting footage of the damage inflicted on the maternity hospital.
Zelensky wrote: “Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity!”
He urged: “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity.”
The Ukrainian Army said on Wednesday that seizing Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, was one of the main objectives of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
Also on Wednesday, Petro Andryushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol’s mayor, wrote on Facebook that “1,300 residents have died so far as a result of the blockade of the city,” PAP reported.
Wednesday is day fourteen of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24.
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Source: PAP