Russia condemned over deadly Mariupol children's hospital bombing as WHO highlights pattern of

[Uncle Joe]

strikes on medical facilities

Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN)An injured woman, heavily pregnant, is carried on a stretcher past the smoldering wreckage of Mariupol's maternity and children's hospital. Her face is pale, one hand cradles her belly in a protective gesture. Every window on that side of the building appears to be blown out; wreckage litters the ground around it.

The searing image was taken following what Mariupol city officials said was a Russian airstrike on the hospital Wednesday that injured 17 people, including children, women and doctors. "Three died, among them one child, a girl," the city council said Thursday.

The city in southeastern Ukraine has been besieged by Russian forces for days, its trapped residents forced to shelter underground, melt snow for water and scavenge for food. Now, even a hospital caring for pregnant women, newborns and children is not safe.

And Mariupol's hospital wasn't the only children's medical facility that authorities said was damaged by Russian forces on Wednesday. Two hospitals in Zhytomyr, west of the capital, Kyiv, had their windows blown out in a Russian airstrike on a thermal power plant and civilian building in the city, the mayor said. One of them was a children's hospital. There were no casualties and everyone was in a bomb shelter, according to the city's mayor, Serhii Sukhomlyn.

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https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/10/europe/russia-invasion-ukraine-03-10-intl/index.html