Ukraine accuses Russia of bombing hospitals during a supposed ceasefire | DW News

Ukraine has accused Russia of bombing a children's hospital and maternity ward in the beleaguered port city of Mariupol. Russia had said it would maintain a cease-fire to enable civilians to flee Mariupol and other besieged cities on Wednesday. But the city council said the hospital had been hit more than once." The Russian occupying forces have dropped several bombs on the children's hospital. The destruction is colossal," it said, adding that it did not yet know casualty numbers. The report could not immediately be verified, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted: "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? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity."

Russia's Defense Ministry has acknowledged that Russian conscripts were sent into Ukraine despite prior repeated denials by President Vladimir Putin. "Unfortunately, we have discovered several facts of the presence of conscripts in units taking part in the special military operation in Ukraine. Practically all such soldiers have been pulled out to Russia," the Defense Ministry said in a statement. The alarm was first raised by mothers of soldiers doing mandatory military service who said they had lost contact with their sons shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Putin repeatedly claimed that only professional soldiers had been used. On Wednesday the Kremlin admitted that conscripts had indeed been sent in, and that some had been taken captive. The ministry also said it was launching an investigation to punish those who allegedly disobeyed orders not to use conscripts.

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