KIEV: According to Ukarine, Russian soldiers encircling Mariupol, the southern port city, have destroyed a maternity facility. According to the BBC, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated children were trapped under the wreckage and urged Western leaders to implement a no-fly zone. He also released video from inside the hospital, which appeared to be severely damaged. There is no word yet on how many people were injured or who was inside the hospital at the time.
The Mariupol city council stated the attack had caused "colossal damage," and released video of burned-out buildings, wrecked automobiles, and a massive crater outside the hospital. For several days, Russian military have surrounded Mariupol, and numerous attempts at a ceasefire to allow residents to flee have failed.
"The entire city is without electricity, water, food, or anything else, and people are dying from thirst," Ukraine's Red Cross spokeswoman Olena Stokoz told the BBC, adding that her organisation would keep trying to organise an evacuation route.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister, earlier noted that "almost 3,000 newborn newborns" in Mariupol are without medicine and food, and that Russia continues to hold more than 400,000 people "hostage." Russia maintains that it does not attack Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.
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