Three people, including a child, died and 17 were injured after a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine was bombed when Russia appeared to break a ceasefire.
Ukraine’s government had announced a day long ceasefire on Wednesday to allow some residents to safely exit, including in the southern port city of Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped for days with no electricity and water, as per the LA Times.
But Russia appeared to break that ceasefire when bombs hit the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who tweeted a video of the aftermath, said people were trapped under the wreckage, called the attack a war crime and asked, “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?”
“What kind of a country is Russia, that it is afraid of hospitals and maternity wards and destroys them?” he said, speaking in Russian for part of his latest video address, as per BBC News.
Residents of the blockaded city of Mariupol had already started to break into stores as food supplies dwindled and many had witnessed officials digging a mass grave to bury the soldiers and civilians killed in recent days.
On Thursday the Kremlin said it would seek information from the Russian military about what had happened.
The attack prompted international outrage with the White House condemning the “barbaric” use of force against innocent civilians and a top U.S. State Department official demanding that Russia “stop these heinous acts now,” as per the LA Times.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that “there are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless”.
The bombs added to the misery of those in the blockaded city where hungry residents have begun breaking into stores and officials dug a mass grave to bury dozens of soldiers and civilians killed in recent days.
The city’s Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov said at least 1,170 civilians had been killed in the city since Russia began its bombardment.
According to the United Nations, more than 2.1 million people have fled Ukraine in the last two weeks with the majority going to Poland and Hungary, making it Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.
As the world watches this cruel and unprovoked attack we all feel so helpless. I hope the Ukrainian people’s suffering comes to an end soon.
