Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed outrage after he said a children's hospital and maternity ward was hit in the city of Mariupol by a Russian airstrike on Wednesday. Ukrainian officials said there were at least 17 people injured.
“Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?” Zelensky tweeted.
The blasts knocked out windows and destroyed the majority of the front of one of the buildings. The ground reportedly shook more than a mile away from the hospital.
Police and soldiers arrived at the scene to try and evacuate the victims of the attack. The AP reported they were seen carrying out a heavily pregnant woman on a stretcher while she was bleeding.
The blast crater is said to be at least two stories deep in the ground, and completely destroyed cars were burning in the courtyard, according to reports.
Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, was on the scene and said the attack was clearly a war crime.
"Today Russia committed a huge crime," Nikulin said. "It is a war crime without any justification."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also took to Twitter after the attack, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be held "to account for his terrible crimes."
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