Friday, February 21, 2025

Horrific Scenes As Russia Strikes Hospital Maternity Ward [Videos]

According to the governor of the Donetsk region, the airstrike happened during an agreed ceasefire period meant to allow civilians to safely escape the area.

[imagesource: Evgeniy Maloletka]

As somebody said on Twitter yesterday, there are war crimes and then there are WAR CRIMES.

Every day, we see further evidence of the atrocities Russian troops are committing in Ukraine.

Yesterday’s attack in the southern city of Mariupol included a strike on a hospital maternity ward. Perhaps this is the tipping point and we will see further military power from abroad provided to Ukrainian forces.

The New York Times reports:

The Ukrainian government blamed Russia for the hospital strike, and witnesses and a local news outlet claimed that it had been caused by bombs dropped by Russian warplanes.

The strike sprayed shrapnel and blew out the windows of several buildings at City Hospital No. 3, the videos showed. One crater in a courtyard between the buildings appeared to be more than 10 feet deep.

Witnesses and open source information from Wikimapia identified the buildings as a children’s clinic, an ophthalmology department and a maternity ward.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy didn’t mince his words, calling the attack a war crime.

In an emotional plea on social media, he begged for more assistance:

According to the governor of the Donetsk region, the airstrike happened during an agreed ceasefire period meant to allow civilians to safely escape the area.

He said 17 people, including women in labour, were wounded in the attack.

Earlier this morning, Sergei Orlov, deputy mayor of Mariupol, said three people – including one child – were killed.

Multiple videos filmed outside the hospital show scenes of devastation and desperation:

More from the BBC:

Mariupol has been surrounded by Russian forces for several days, and repeated attempts at a ceasefire to allow civilians to leave have broken down.

“The whole city remains without electricity, water, food, whatever and people are dying because of dehydration,” Olena Stokoz of Ukraine’s Red Cross told the BBC, adding that her organisation would continue trying to organise an evacuation corridor.

Deputy Mayor Orlov said at least 1,170 civilians had been killed in the city since Russia began its bombardment, and that 47 people there were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday, although those figures have not been independently verified.

Appearing late last night to deliver an address, President Zelenskyy was close to tears as he spoke about the attack:

An exact civilian death toll from the invasion remains difficult to pin down. Yesterday, the UN said it had recorded 516 civilian deaths, including 37 children, but added that “the real figures are considerably higher”.

[sources:nytimes&bbc]