Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of carrying out genocide after officials said Russian aircraft bombed a children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol on Wednesday.
The attack, which authorities said injured women in labor and left children in the wreckage, is the latest grim incident of the 14-day invasion, the biggest assault on a European state since 1945.
The Mariupol city council said the hospital had been hit several times in what the White House called a ‘barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians’.
The destruction took place despite a Russian pledge to halt firing so at least some trapped civilians could escape the city, where hundreds of thousands have been sheltering without water or power for more than a week.
“What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, is afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a televised address late on Wednesday.
Zelenskiy repeated his call for the West to tighten sanctions on Russia so that they sit down at the negotiating table and end this brutal war. The bombing of the children’s hospital, he said, was proof that genocide of Ukrainians is taking place.
The UN human rights body said it was verifying the number of casualties at Mariupol.
“The incident adds to our deep concerns about the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas and civilians trapped in active hostilities in numerous areas,” said spokesperson Liz Throssell.
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