Russian airstrike hits maternity hospital, as officials warn of fast-rising civilian toll+ Photos - Newstrends
Connect with us

International

Russian airstrike hits maternity hospital, as officials warn of fast-rising civilian toll+ Photos

Published

4 years ago

on

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol.

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — A Russian airstrike hit a Ukrainian maternity hospital in the besieged coastal city of Mariupol on Wednesday, injuring at least 17 staff members and patients as leaders warned of the fast-rising civilian toll of the two-week-old conflict, officials said.

The blast tore the front off one of the buildings in the hospital complex and damaged several others. One pregnant woman was evacuated on a stretcher; a long bleeding gash on her left hip was visible in images from the scene. Another pregnant woman, bleeding from her forehead, walked down a staircase, a faded rose-print blanket draped over her shoulders, her possessions in a purple plastic bag. A flaming car sat on a square that was punctuated with gnarled, burned trees.

“What kind of country is this, Russia, which is afraid of hospitals and maternity hospitals and destroys them?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night video, appearing close to tears. “Were pregnant women going to fire at [the Russian city of] Rostov? Did someone in the maternity hospital abuse Russian-speakers? What was that? Was it the de-Nazification of the hospital?”

The bombing punctuated another devastating day in Ukraine, where leaders made increasingly desperate calls for more Western help, while U.S. officials warned that Russia seemed to be launching more indiscriminate attacks and making small but strategic gains on key cities. U.S. officials also warned that Russian rhetoric about chemical weapons could mean they were plotting a “false-flag” attack.

Officials feared that the coming days could be particularly grim for refugees and Ukrainians who have camped out in basements and subway stations to try to avoid Russian bombing. The United Nations said Wednesday it had recorded 516 civilian deaths, including 37 children, in the fighting so far, but it said in a statement that “the real figures are considerably higher.”

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Ukrainian servicemen work inside of the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol.

The governor of the region that includes Mariupol, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said in a video posted on Telegram that the 17 injured people in the Mariupol attack were mostly staff members and that no children were hurt. It was not immediately clear how full the hospital was when it was hit, with Mariupol encircled by Russian forces and city life largely having come to a halt. Patients appeared to have been using at least a portion of the aboveground maternity wards.

The attack drew immediate global condemnation, along with promises of more support for the embattled country.

“There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter.

The World Health Organization said earlier Wednesday it had so far verified 18 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine. The attacks inflicted 10 deaths and 16 injuries, the organization said.

READ ALSO:

“These attacks deprive whole communities of health care,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The Russian military appears to be throwing inexperienced soldiers into combat, acknowledging Wednesday that at least some conscripted soldiers had been sent into battle despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s orders to leave the fighting to professionals. Putin on Wednesday ordered military prosecutors to investigate who was responsible for disobeying the order, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Adding to worries about an escalation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned that Russia may be planning a “false-flag” chemical weapons attack, after Russian officials claimed to have evidence that the United States had supported a bioweapons program in Ukraine, and that “Ukrainian nationalists” were readying a chemical weapons “provocation” close to the Russian border near Kharkiv. U.S. officials dismissed the accusation.

“Now that Russia has made these false claims,” Psaki said on Twitter, “we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.”

There were fears that the scale of the human suffering could grow even more if Ukraine’s nuclear facilities failed as a result of the fighting. Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrenergo, warned Wednesday that the closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant had been disconnected from the grid and that there were just 48 hours of fuel left for the diesel backup generators that keep the cooling and ventilation systems at the plant operational.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba demanded a cease-fire with Russia so repairs could be made, warning that after reserve diesel generators run out of fuel, “cooling systems of the storage facility for spent nuclear fuel will stop, making radiation leaks imminent.” The International Atomic Energy Agency was slightly less urgent, saying Wednesday on Twitter that the power loss “violates [a] key safety pillar on ensuring uninterrupted power supply” but adding that “in this case IAEA sees no critical impact on safety.”

Both Russia and Ukraine announced routes to allow people to leave hard-hit cities. But after accusing Putin’s forces of shelling the escape routes four days in a row, Ukrainian officials remained skeptical about the temporary cease-fire announcements.

Officials in Izyum, one of the cities set to be evacuated, alleged Wednesday that efforts to get civilians out were compromised by shelling from Russian forces. Other evacuations appeared to be proceeding. Local officials in the northeastern Sumy region, from which 5,000 people were able to evacuate a day earlier, said people were leaving in private cars and that they planned to load 22 buses, prioritizing pregnant women, women with children, older people and people with disabilities.

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP An injured pregnant woman walks downstairs in the damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol

By Friday morning, much of Ukraine could be hovering around 14 degrees Fahrenheit, with gusty winds from the east that make the air feel even more bitter. And parts of northeastern Ukraine could get up to four inches of snow through Friday. The bitter temperatures are expected to make the situation in the country more difficult — for soldiers and civilians alike.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the Pentagon, said Wednesday that Russia’s military campaign appears to be growing more indiscriminate as its troops make small but strategic gains on key cities.

There are “indications” the Russians are dropping “dumb munitions,” the official said, but added that it was “not totally clear whether that is by design” or because precision-guided munitions were somehow damaged.

“While we can’t prove a certain dumb bomb is hitting a certain target … what we see manifested is increasing damage to civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties,” the official said. Avoiding such casualties, the official added, “cannot be aided by the use of dumb bombs.”

The Biden administration has been adamant that it will not involve U.S. troops in the war and thus far has dismissed calls from Zelensky and others to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying enforcement could risk putting U.S. and NATO military personnel in direct conflict with Russian forces. But as the advance on major cities continues, the humanitarian situation is becoming more dire — particularly in places like Mariupol, which, according to the defense official, is now “isolated.”

Russia has launched more than 710 missiles, about half of which were fired from locations within Ukraine, according to the defense official. In the last 24 hours, Russian troops also made gains in their assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest population center, moving 20 kilometers closer to the center of the city in the country’s northeast. Russian forces also have moved about 15 kilometers to the north of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, according to a U.S. assessment, representing another territorial gain.

If the southern city falls, it could become a staging ground for a Russian assault on the large port city of Odessa, the defense official said.

The Pentagon believes Ukraine still has the bulk of its fixed-wing aircraft “available to them and operational,” the official said, but the Russians have surface-to-air missile systems that “virtually cover the whole country.”

“One has to assume they’re taking that into effect before they decide to fly manned aircraft,” the U.S. defense official said.

Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Ukrainian emergency personnel work at the side of the shell-damaged maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9.

That posture appears to have been driving some skepticism in the United States about the logic of sending Ukraine more attack aircraft, as Poland has been pressing to do. On Tuesday night, the United States rejected a Polish proposal to move MiG-29 warplanes to a U.S. base in Germany so they could be deployed to aid Ukraine at the United States’ direction.

Psaki reiterated Wednesday that there “obvious concerns” with such a plan.

“It doesn’t require a military expert to understand why having planes fly from a U.S. air base into … a country where there is a war is not in our interests and not in NATO’s interests,” she said.

Psaki also cited problems with alternative suggestions for transporting those planes from Poland into Ukraine. “Carting them down the street,” she said, was not as easy as people might think.

“They have to be taken apart and put back together,” Psaki said. “You have to have people who are able to put those planes back together. You have to ensure that they can be safely moved through the course of a contested country.”

But U.S. officials also acknowledged that Ukrainian leaders may feel the need to press for whatever assistance they can get.

“If I were in President Zelensky’s position, I’m sure I would be asking for everything possible … to help the Ukrainian people,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Truss was more direct in her skepticism.

“The best way to defend” Ukraine, she said, is “with antitank weapons and anti-air weapons.”

Birnbaum, Demirjian and Firozi reported from Washington. Karly Domb Sadof, Elyse Samuels, Amy B Wang and Karen DeYoung in Washington and Karla Adam, Annabelle Timsit and Adela Suliman in London contributed to this report.

Washington Post

Loading

Related Topics:
Advertisement

International

Iran Vows Continuous Strikes if US Doesn’t Halt Attacks as Middle East War Spreads to Red Sea

Published

12 hours ago

on

July 23, 2026

By

Iran Vows Continuous Strikes if US Doesn't Halt Attacks as Middle East War Spreads to Red Sea

Iran Vows Continuous Strikes if US Doesn’t Halt Attacks as Middle East War Spreads to Red Sea

  • Tehran’s military warns of “new scenarios” as Houthi allies strike Saudi oil tankers, threatening a second chokepoint on global energy supplies alongside the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has vowed to keep striking the region for as long as it remains under attack, as the Middle East war spreads to new fronts with Tehran’s Houthi allies attacking Saudi shipping in the Red Sea. The conflict resumed following a ceasefire that lasted just a few weeks, throwing the region and global energy markets back into chaos as Iran and the United States battle for control of the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passed before the war. “The armed forces’ retaliatory attacks will continue as long as the US attacks on the country’s infrastructure and coastal areas continue,” Iran’s army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia said, according to state TV. Iranian military spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akrami-Nia further declared that the conflict had entered a new phase after the US “violated the agreement to end the war.” Akrami-Nia warned that Iran has prepared “new scenarios” to retaliate if the US continues military operations against its territory. “The US must understand that this situation cannot last forever. If they continue their destructive actions targeting the southern regions of our country, Iran will take new measures… New scenarios have been developed, preparations have been made, and we will respond in a different way to prevent the adversary from continuing the war,” he said.

The developments follow fresh US strikes on Iranian military targets, with US Central Command reporting its twelfth consecutive night of strikes, saying it aimed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters”. American strikes have widened from the south to western and central areas of Iran in 12 straight days of attacks since the June ceasefire fell apart. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US would bomb Iranian civilian infrastructure every time Tehran fires at ships in Hormuz. “Any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,” Trump wrote on social media, including those “located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran”. Iran’s joint military command warned that if Trump’s threat against infrastructure was carried out, Iranian forces would target regional oil, gas, electricity and economic infrastructure and prevent the export of “even a single drop of oil,” Iranian state media reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would respond in kind to any attack on its infrastructure, writing: “Our defence doctrine is clear: eye for an eye”. Iranian state media said Thursday that a US attack killed two people at Shalamcheh on the Islamic republic’s border with Iraq. It also reported two US missiles hit Bushehr, home to the country’s only civilian nuclear plant and a frequent target of Washington’s strikes.

READ ALSO:

The Iranian-aligned Houthis this week joined the conflict, claiming to have struck two Saudi oil tankers after declaring a blockade of Saudi ports. The Houthis said their forces carried out missile and drone strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, identifying them as the Encelia and the Layla. Saudi state news agency SPA cited an official source as saying the Encelia was struck, causing a fire at the bow. A maritime security source said Encelia had transmitted a distress call, reporting it had been struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea late on Wednesday. The attack on the Layla remained unconfirmed. The Houthi threat to impose a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia could significantly widen the war and strain the US military, current and former US officials said. Five tankers changed course in the Red Sea to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, and three tankers loaded with Saudi oil for China and India made U-turns on Tuesday. Millions of barrels per day of Saudi oil have been heading to the kingdom’s Red Sea port of Yanbu to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. If shipments cannot pass through the Red Sea’s southern strait, they have only the northern route through the Suez Canal, adding weeks and costs to the journey.

In Hormuz, the Revolutionary Guards said they stopped three oil tankers from transiting, as the US and Iran vie for control over the route. “The Strait of Hormuz is under our control… and any ship that is deceived by the US and intends to pass without coordination with the Islamic Republic of Iran will suffer the same fate,” the Revolutionary Guards said. Hours later, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reported an explosion in what it called a mined route south of the Strait of Hormuz, saying one of three oil tankers had caught fire while the other two turned back. The Guards said the strait was under their control and “completely closed,” warning that no tanker would be allowed to enter or leave without coordination with Iran.

Oil prices again climbed Thursday, with Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, up four percent at $97.80 a barrel, bringing back fears of spiralling consumer prices and slowed growth globally. Even before the renewed threats to shipping traffic in the Red Sea, Iran’s near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz had stoked inflation around the world, pushing up oil prices and squeezing US gasoline consumers.

On the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Manila, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Houthis had been “suckered” into attacking Red Sea shipping by Iran. “The Houthis largely were smart and stayed out of all this throughout the conflict, but they now apparently have gotten themselves suckered into this, going after Saudi Arabia and their ships,” Rubio said. “I hope they will de-escalate, because I think the Houthis, frankly, got snookered into this thing by the Iranians.” Rubio also told the diplomatic gathering that the price Iran pays “will get higher every night” until Tehran is ready for a peace deal it would live by. “Iran is begging (for a deal) every day. The problem with Iran is every time they make a deal … they either break it or they want to change it,” he said. “So now they’re paying the price for it. And maybe they’ll change their mind here over the next few days as they continue to suffer great losses.” Oman, a key mediator in the longstanding war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, said it was working to resume talks between the two sides, as it voiced “great concern” at the situation in the Red Sea.

Iran Vows Continuous Strikes if US Doesn’t Halt Attacks as Middle East War Spreads to Red Sea

Loading

Continue Reading

International

Just in: Senegal’s President Diomaye Faye Emerges New ECOWAS Chairman

Published

4 days ago

on

July 19, 2026

By

Just in: Senegal’s President Diomaye Faye Emerges New ECOWAS Chairman

 

Senegal’s President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), taking over the leadership of the 15-member regional bloc at a critical period marked by rising insecurity, political instability and efforts to strengthen regional integration.

Faye emerged as the new chairman on Sunday during the 69th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where regional leaders deliberated on pressing political, economic and security issues confronting West Africa.

The Senegalese leader succeeds Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio, who assumed the rotating chairmanship in June 2025 after taking over from Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu.

Faye’s election places him at the helm of ECOWAS at a time the regional body is battling terrorism, violent extremism, unconstitutional changes of government and the diplomatic fallout from the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from the bloc.

Restoring regional cohesion and advancing economic integration are expected to rank high on his agenda.

The 46-year-old Senegalese president, who came to office in April 2024 on a reformist platform promising transparency, anti-corruption measures and stronger African cooperation, is widely regarded as one of the new generation of leaders shaping the continent’s political landscape.

Established in 1975, ECOWAS remains the principal regional organisation promoting economic integration, free movement, peace, security and democratic governance across West Africa.

The Authority of Heads of State and Government is the bloc’s highest decision-making body, with its chairmanship rotating among member states.

Loading

Continue Reading

International

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit

Published

5 days ago

on

July 19, 2026

By

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit

  • Zohran Mamdani calls Israeli PM a “war criminal” and says his legal department is actively reviewing whether city authorities can enforce an ICC warrant, as US envoy dismisses the threat as “pure political theater”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has said his administration is actively examining whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be arrested if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September. Speaking on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, Mamdani said the city’s legal department is assessing the matter, which aligns with a campaign pledge he made during the mayoral race. “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,” Mamdani said. “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.”

When asked about the legal authority available to his office, Mamdani said the issue remains under active review. “That’s an active conversation with our legal department. However, what we’ve seen at the national level is a desire sometimes to write your own laws, to go outside of the bounds of legality. That’s not something we have an interest in.” The mayor clarified that he would act only within the bounds of existing law. “Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that’s what we will do, but we won’t be writing our own laws to that end.” The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Gaza, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. Both President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden criticised the court’s decision.

READ ALSO:

Any attempt by New York authorities to enforce the warrant would face major legal obstacles. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC and requires member states to execute the court’s arrest warrants. Former prosecutors have warned that any attempt by Mamdani or New York police officials to arrest Netanyahu based on an ICC warrant would violate US federal law and could expose them to federal conspiracy charges. US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz dismissed the mayor’s comments on Saturday, describing them as “pure political theater.” In a social media post, Waltz outlined four reasons why the arrest “is not going to happen”: the US is not party to the Rome Statute; the UN Headquarters Agreement grants diplomatic protections to visiting heads of government; head-of-state immunity applies; and federal authority trumps any local mayor’s wishes. The Trump administration has escalated its long-running battle against the ICC, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently pledging to “dismantle” the court and accusing it of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles” but with “the force of so-called international law.”

Netanyahu dismissed the concerns during an interview earlier in the week with WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg, accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas and suggesting the mayor “secretly hates America.” Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on social media on Saturday that Netanyahu “will come to New York, address the United Nations General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel’s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens.” Danon also accused Mamdani of failing to confront the “rising wave of antisemitism” in New York City and suggested that “if anyone should be arrested, it is Mayor Zohran Mamdani.”

New York Mayor Says He Is Exploring Possible Arrest of Netanyahu During UN Visit

Loading

Continue Reading

Trending