The Russian army bombed, on Wednesday March 9, a pediatric hospital in Mariupol, a strategic port in the south-east of Ukraine, injuring seventeen and provoking the indignation of the Ukrainian authorities, Unicef and Westerners.
The attack occurred while women were giving birth in the hospital, which had just been re-equipped, said a member of the military administration of the Donetsk region.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson blasted an attack “immoral”, the UN recalling that no health facility “must not be a target”. In the United States, the spokeswoman for the American executive Jen Psaki judged “atrocious to see the kind of barbaric use of military force against innocent civilians in a sovereign country”.
“An example of a crime against humanity”
UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said “horrified” by the attack. “We don’t know the number of victims but we fear the worst.“, she said in a press release.
In Ukraine, Liudmyla Denisova, in charge of human rights at the Ukrainian Parliament, denounced on her Telegram channel “an example of crime against humanity and genocide against the Ukrainian people”.
“Mariupol faces a humanitarian crisis”she wrote again, pointing out that “The Russian army has been bombarding Mariupol with heavy artillery since early this morning”. The planned evacuation route to the nearby town of Zaporizhia“has not been cleared” according to her.