Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the Russian government for ordering their military troops to attack a children's and maternity hospital amid the ongoing war between the two nations.
The city council of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol posted videos of a destroyed children's and maternity hospital in the region. They accused Moscow's troops of dropping several bombs from the air.
Russia's Bombing of Children's Hospital
Authorities added that the damage to the hospital was tremendous and left the building of the medical facility that was dedicated to children's treatment completely destroyed. They added that they were still trying to get information about any injuries or casualties from the blasts.
The head of the Donetsk regional administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said that the Russian airstrike on Mariupol destroyed the maternity hospital in the city center, a children's ward, and a department of internal medicine.
Donetsk region police revealed that based on their preliminary information, there were at least 17 people who got injured from the bombing, including mothers and staff. They said that they were still investigating the situation to confirm the details, as per CNN.
Since the start of Russia's attack on Ukraine two weeks ago, Moscow has launched more than 710 missiles against its European neighbor. The Pentagon said that it had seen indications that the Kremlin's forces were also dropping what it called "dumb bombs."
The armaments are ammunition that are not equipped with precision guidance and thus have limited ability to hit their targets accurately. The senior U.S. defense official who made the remarks on Wednesday said that it remained unclear whether or not Moscow's use of the dumb bombs was by design or by default.
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According to The Hill, the American federal government sees the "increasing damage to civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties" with the combination of Russia's bombs and missiles. The comments come shortly after the bombing of the children's hospital in Mariupol.
Ceasefire Deal
The bombing in Mariupol comes amid a ceasefire deal to allow people in the region to flee and protect themselves from becoming casualties of war. The city has been home to hundreds of thousands of residents who have been sheltering without power or water for more than a week.
On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian troops were not told to fire on civilian targets. Since the beginning of the war, Moscow has called its invasion of Ukraine a "special operation" in its attempt to disarm the nation and dislodge leaders that it claimed were "neo-Nazis.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki commented on the images of the aftermath and called Russia's actions "barbaric." The UN Human Rights body also said that its monitoring mission was trying to verify the number of casualties at Mariupol.
UN spokesperson Liz Throssell noted that the recent incident has added to the agency's deep concerns of the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas and civilians trapped in active hostilities in numerous areas in Ukraine. In a Twitter post, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that indiscriminate shelling by Russia was continuing in the region, Reuters reported.
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