LAST UPDATE | 9 Mar 2022

Mariupol. Russian artillery ruined maternity hospital and children hospital. A lot of killed and wounded women. No information about children and newborn yet. Hey, @UN how are you doing? Please retweet pic.twitter.com/QJSfUMMngW

— Dmytro Gurin, Ukrainian MP (@DmytroGurinMP) March 9, 2022

THE MAYOR OF Mariupol has said that 1,207 civilians have been killed in the Russian siege of the city, while 17 people were injured during a missile strike on a children’s hospital in the city.

In a message on Telegram, city authorities said that the Russian siege saw “1,207 peaceful Mariupol residents dying” while the city’s mayor Vadym Boichenko posted a video message updating civilians.

The ground shook more than a mile away when a series of blasts slammed into the Mariupol complex, blowing out windows and ripping away much of the front of one building.

Police and soldiers rushed to scene to evacuate victims, carrying out a heavily pregnant and bleeding woman on a stretcher.

A statement on the city council’s social media account said the hospital suffered “colossal” damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that there were “people, children under the wreckage”. He called the strike an “atrocity”.

The deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said authorities are trying to establish the number of people who may have been killed or wounded.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the southeastern Donetsk region, said in a Facebook post that 17 staff were wounded in the air strike but that “so far no kids were wounded” and that there have been “no deaths”.

Russia’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is quoted as saying “national battalions” had expelled staff and patients from the Mariupol’s maternity hospital and set up firing positions there.

It comes as citizens trying to escape shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv streamed toward the capital amid warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn.

A children's hospital has been left in ruins by an attack carried out during a supposed ceasefire, in the city of Mariupol.

Ukraine say it was caused by a Russian airstrike - President Zelenskyy has called it an "atrocity". pic.twitter.com/qPDVGr3ujY

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) March 9, 2022

Widespread condemnation

The bombing of the children’s hospital has been condemned internationally by the UN, the WHO, UNICEF, and heads of Government. 

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in response to the news that no health facility “should ever be a target”. The UN and the WHIO have called for an “immediate halt to attacks on health care, hospitals, healthcare workers, ambulances,” Dujarric told a press conference.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the air strike made the “indiscriminate cruelty” of the invasion “crystal clear”. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also condemned the attack, saying: “There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless.”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of the WHO said the organisation “is aware of disturbing news reports about an attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine. The WHO unequivocally condemns all acts of violence against health facilities, healthworkers and patients. We reiterate our urgent call for a peaceful resolution.”

Ukrainian MEP Inna Sovsun told RTÉ’s Drivetime programme that the attack was “another level of cruelty”. 

We are still waiting for data on the casualties. I pray that people did manage to hide in the basement and that we will not have casualties, but the very fact that the Russians are doing this is just unacceptable and unthinkable.

“This extreme cruelty towards civilians is basically what they’ve resorted to right now, because they cannot fight the Ukrainian army, so they turn to cruelty against civilians.”

Sovsun said residents in Mariupol remain without water, heating and electricity since the city was surrounded by Russian forces, calling it a “humanitarian catastrophe”. 

People try to flee cities

The incident comes as authorities announced the new cease-fire this morning to allow thousands of civilians to escape from towns around Kyiv as well as the southern cities of Mariupol, Enerhodar and Volnovakha, Izyum in the east and Sumy in the northeast.

Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors largely failed because of Russian attacks.

It was not immediately clear whether anyone was able to leave other cities, but people streamed out of Kyiv’s suburbs, many headed for the city centre, even as explosions were heard in the capital and air raid sirens sounded repeatedly.

From there, they planned to board trains bound for western Ukrainian regions not under attack.

In Mariupol, local authorities hurried to bury the dead in a mass grave. City workers dug a trench some 25 metres long at one of the city’s old cemeteries and made a sign of the cross as they pushed bodies wrapped in carpets or bags over the edge.

Thousands of people are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in two weeks of fighting since President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded.

The UN estimates more than two million people have fled the country, the biggest exodus of refugees in Europe since the end of the Second World War.

Negotiations

As the war continues, the first set of high-level talks between Russia and Ukraine are set to get underway in Turkey.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba will meet for the talks in southern Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had pushed for Turkey to play a mediation role, has expressed hope the talks can avert tragedy and even help agree a ceasefire.

Lavrov and Kuleba will be joined at the meeting by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, with NATO member Turkey keen to maintain strong relations with both sides despite the conflict.

Kuleba confirmed in a video on Facebook he was preparing to meet Lavrov on Thursday, warning that his expectations were “limited”.

He said the success of the talks would depend on “what instructions and directives Lavrov is under” from the Kremlin at the discussions.

Fighting continues

While Kharkiv remains within Ukrainian control, with AFP sources saying that the city is now likely surrounded by Russian troops.

Russian forces have also begun to press through Donetsk and Lugansk on the eastern border of the country.

In Kyiv, while bombardment is continuing in the Ukrainian capital, there is no evidence of Russia making any breakthrough in the north.

The British defence ministry has said that the Russians have “ailing to make any significant breakthrough” in the northwest.

Most of the Russian forces outside the city are stationed around 60km outside Kyiv and are seeking to attack from the east, according to the US Defence Department.

Some defence analysts have been concentrating for an assault within the next four days.

With reporting from AFP.