When almost two weeks have passed since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Kiev accused Russia of bombing a children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol, leaving 17 civilians injured. Russian soldiers have been advancing rapidly for several days from the north and northeast of the Ukrainian capital. Air-raid sirens sounded intermittently in Kiev as the army beefed up defenses in nearby towns to try to stem the advance of the Kremlin-sent convoy, believed to be some 15 kilometers away. meanwhile they were open several humanitarian corridors agreed between the parties to evacuate the population.
The bombing of a children’s hospital
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, denounced the Russian attack on Mariupol and once more called for the closure of Ukrainian airspace. “Direct attack by Russian troops on children’s hospital. There are people, children under the rubble. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be complicit in ignoring this terror? Close the airspace now,” Zelensky wrote on his Twitter account.
The shelling “literally destroyed” a maternity hospital in the city center that also included a pediatric unit, said Pavlo Kirilenko, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration. The attack, which caused at least 17 injuries according to the Ukrainian authorities, took place while six humanitarian corridors were open for the evacuation of civilians from the cities.
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria ZakharovaHe said without denying the attack that Ukrainian “nationalist battalions” had evacuated staff and patients and deployed on site firing positions.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denounced the “immoral” attack. “It is appalling to see the barbaric use of military force once morest innocent civilians,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, while the UN called for “an immediate end to attacks on hospitals, health workers and ambulances.”
Humanitarian corridors advance
According to the head of the parliamentary faction of the Ukrainian ruling Servant of the People party, David Arajamia, During the day, more than 40,000 civilians were evacuated from towns throughout the country. where hostilities take place. “We continue to work, the most problematic points are Mariupol, Kharkov and the Kiev region,” Arajamia said, without specifying from which cities the civilians were evacuated and which routes they used.
The head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s humanitarian coordination center, Mikhail Mizintsev, said that they had officially proposed to Kiev to open ten humanitarian corridors on Wednesday and carry out the evacuation of civilians and foreign citizens from Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol. , and that the Russian forces ceased fire from 10 am local time.
What’s more, the Russian government officially recognized the sending of recruits to the so-called “special military operation”, as he calls the invasion of Ukraine, and said he is taking steps to get all of them back to Russia. One of those units, “which was assigned combat service support tasks, was attacked by a sabotage group from a Ukrainian battalion” and that “some military personnel, including conscripts, were captured,” said the Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenko.
Chernobyl power plant without electricity
In the morning, the Ukrenergo National Power Company reported that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had lost power due to attacks by Russian troops. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kulebawarned that the electricity generators that supply the plant have a reserve capacity of regarding 48 hours. “After that, the nuclear fuel storage facility’s cooling systems will stop, which will make radiation leaks imminentKuleba warned on his Twitter account.
But following The Russian Defense Ministry accused the Ukrainian forces of having attacked the electrical network that supplies the nuclear power plant.. “I must note with great regret that the Ukrainian nationalists committed another extremely dangerous provocation. They attacked the substation and power lines feeding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Russian experts took immediate action to switch to backup diesel generator power sources “Russian Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said.
First high-ranking meeting
In the meantime The Foreign Ministers of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, and Russia, Sergei Lavrov, are scheduled to meet this Thursday in the Turkish resort of Antalya, in the first high-ranking meeting since the Russian invasion began two weeks ago. Until now, lower-ranking delegations had met in Belarus to explore the possibilities of a ceasefire or to agree on humanitarian corridors in different regions of Ukraine.
Russia insists on its demands to put an end to the invasion, such as the neutrality and demilitarization of Ukraine and a Ukrainian recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula and the independence of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. While Ukraine has hinted this week that it might negotiate a neutral status and give up applying for NATO membership, it refuses to give up any of its territory.
