Seventeen people were reportedly wounded on Wednesday, 9 March after air strikes by Russia hit a children’s hospital and maternity facility in the blockaded city of Mariupol, in an attack which the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy termed as an 'atrocity'.
As per a report by Reuters, the 17 wounded include women in labour.
"People, children are under the wreckage," President Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter, attaching a video capturing the debris left after the strike.
While no reports have emerged on the casualties yet, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, indicated that authorities are trying to ascertain the number of people who may have been killed or wounded, The Guardian reported.
According to a statement by the city council on Facebook, the hospital suffered “colossal” damage on Wednesday. "The building of the medical facility where the children were treated recently is completely destroyed," the post added.
Zelenskyy Continues Push for No-Fly Zone Over Ukraine
Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy had said that the international community would be responsible for a “humanitarian catastrophe” if it does not close the skies over the embattled European nation, and warned that Ukraine is at the maximum threat level.
Meanwhile, Russia said negotiations with officials from Kyiv to resolve the conflict in Ukraine were making headway and underscored that Moscow's troops were not working to topple the Ukrainian government.
According to the latest data from the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday, more than two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February.
(With inputs from Reuters and The Guardian.)
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