Women and children feared dead after Russian airstrike destroys maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine claims
WOMEN and children are feared dead after a Russian airstrike destroyed a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine has claimed.
The city council accused brutal Russian forces of “dropping several bombs” on the hospital – and described the damage as “colossal”.
Horror footage showed the charred remains of the hospital with wounded staff and patients being helped out of the building into a devastating scene of burning cars and rubble.
Mariupol city council said: “The Russian occupying forces have dropped several bombs on the children’s hospital. The destruction is colossal.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared footage of the scene inside the hospital and said: “Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity!
“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.”
Vyacheslav Abroskin, the former deputy chief of police in Ukraine, wrote on Facebook: “According to eyewitnesses, the maternity hospital no longer exists, there are many wounded and killed women.”
He added: “F**k Russians, you will burn in hell!”
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According to local reports, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, said both the maternity unit and the children’s ward were bombed.
Days of shelling in Mariupol have cut residents off from the outside world and forced them to scavenge for food and water.
Yesterday, a girl, eight, died of dehydration in the city of Mariupol after Russian attacks left her without access to water, power, or heating.
Thousands of people are thought to have been killed in Ukraine – both civilians and soldiers – in two weeks of fighting since Putin’s forces stormed the country.
The UN said more than two million people have now fled the country – the biggest exodus of refugees in Europe since the end of World War Two.
Authorities announced a new ceasefire today to allow civilians to escape from towns around Kyiv, as well as the southern cities of Mariupol, Enerhodar and Volnovakha, Izyum in the east and Sumy in the northeast.
But previous attempts to create safe evacuation corridors have largely failed due to attacks by Russian forces.
It comes as Russia’s stranded troops are facing freezing to death in their tanks as Putin’s military becomes bogged down in the mud and an unwinnable war in Ukraine.
A 40-mile long convoy of tanks and armoured vehicles remains trapped outside Kyiv – more than a week after launching their assault on the Ukrainian capital.
As a sudden cold snap sends temperatures in Eastern Europe plunging to -10C overnight – or -20C including windchill – Russian troops are trapped in what one ex-soldier called “40-ton iron freezers”.
Icy conditions are also set to make life even harder for Putin‘s invaders, who have been stuck around 20 miles from Kyiv for days amid mechanical problems, fuel supply issues, and solid Ukrainian resistance.
Aerial satellite images taken on Wednesday morning show the traffic jam of Russian military vehicle close to Antonov Airport, just a few miles northwest of the outskirts of Kyiv.
Former British Army Major Kevin Price told the Mail Online that Russia’s tanks will become nothing more than “40-ton freezers” as temperatures plummet, and said that the bitter conditions will further dampen the morale of the Russian military.
Already, reports are coming in of demoralised Russian troops complaining about the war in intercepted phone calls to comrades and loved ones.
In the calls, Putin’s troops claim the war could drag on for “months” and say they are being “massacred” in Ukraine.
Russian soldiers are reportedly “deserting their posts” after “large-scale losses”, including the deaths of top generals.
However, the cold spell is also worsening the lives of Ukrainian refugees, as well as children trapped in the war.
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