Kyiv, Ukraine — Moscow launched a new attack on the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine Thursday, a day after one of its planes bombed a maternity hospital.
On the 15th day of fighting, Ukrainian authorities increased the death toll from Wednesday’s hospital explosion to three killed and 17 wounded.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart on Thursday, said the hospital was a legitimate target as it was being held by “local radical militias,” though Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters “we don’t have clear information.” about the incident.
“This is a complete lie,” Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko said in response to Mr. Lavrov’s assertion. “Everything that was said, every word was absolutely untrue.”
Satellite imagery shows the extent of damage in Mariupol, where a maternity hospital was hit by a Russian strike; The Pentagon rejected Poland’s offer to help Ukraine with jet fighters; The foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met for talks and failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire. Photo: Yevgeny Maloletka/Associated Press
Russia has already been accused of attacks on hospitals. Physicians for Human Rights confirmed 492 attacks on medical facilities in Syria and 847 deaths of medical personnel between March 2011 and December 2017 by Russian and Syrian forces. Similar results were found in other groups, including MSF. Russia once called such accusations “figments of the imagination.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has renewed efforts to evacuate civilians from several cities where Ukrainian and Russian forces have agreed to a tentative ceasefire. While similar efforts have failed due to fighting, the Ukrainian government said on Thursday that 35,000 civilians have fled along the agreed corridors since the first ones were organized earlier this week.
Attempts to evacuate Mariupol, a strategically important city on Ukraine’s southern coast, have repeatedly failed. Its siege and bombardment becomes a cautionary tale about what can happen to other Ukrainian cities when Russia insists on its invasion.
Mr. Boichenko called for a humanitarian corridor through which children and the elderly could escape the shelling, which he said continued on Thursday. Ten days of shelling left a city of more than 400,000 without food, clean water or electricity, he said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov (left) in Antalya, Turkey.
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry / via REUTERS
Video footage of parts of Mariupol began to resemble cities destroyed by Russia in other conflicts, such as Grozny in Chechnya and Idlib in Syria.
The rest of the inhabitants hid in the cellars. More than 1,200 civilians were killed in the assault, according to local authorities. “They are destroying our nation,” Mr. Boychenko said.
Thursday’s meeting between Mr. Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Antalya, Turkey lasted 90 minutes. According to Mr. Kuleba, no progress has been made on a ceasefire agreement.
A woman near a shelled hospital in Mariupol.
Photo: Yevgeny Maloletka/Associated Press
At the site of the bombed-out hospital, Mariupol’s deputy mayor said heavy shelling had prevented the discovery of countless more bodies, and that 47 people were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday. The hospital was the second hit after a large 600-bed clinic earlier in the week. According to Deputy Mayor Sergei Orlov, a blood bank was also blown up.
The World Health Organization, a United Nations body, on Thursday said it had confirmed 24 attacks on medical facilities, workers and ambulances, including 12 dead and 17 injured. “Some of the major health issues we are seeing are hypothermia and frostbite, respiratory problems, lack of treatment for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and mental health issues,” CEO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
The shelling of Mariupol and similar shelling of other cities in Ukraine that are within range of Russian forces showed that Moscow, unable to quickly take control of the country since the invasion began two weeks ago, is moving forward, heedless of civilian casualties. Moscow has said its forces are not deliberately targeting civilians. Ukrainian forces, unable to match the Russians in manpower or weapons, prefer to retreat to urban areas where heavy fighting is expected.
Smoke rises after the shelling of Mariupol.
Photo: Yevgeny Maloletka/Associated Press
The bodies are placed in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol.
Photo: Yevgeny Maloletka/Associated Press
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday accused the US of declaring “economic war” on Russia after President Biden banned oil and other energy from the country.
In the US, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation blocking Russian oil imports following Mr. Biden’s executive ban on Russian energy imports. The law also requires the US Trade Representative to call on other members of the World Trade Organization to suspend trade concessions to Russia and take other steps to expel Russia from the organization.
The British government on Thursday imposed sanctions on Russian billionaires, including Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska. He has also frozen the assets of Igor Sechin and other close allies of Putin as he hopes to put further pressure on Kremlin-connected businessmen.
Western countries also continue to look for ways to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses, although the Pentagon on Wednesday also rejected the idea of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members providing Soviet-made MiG-29 combat aircraft to Ukraine, despite heavy lobbying from Kyiv.
The highest-ranking US military officer in Europe, Gen. Tod Walters, defended MiG’s decision early Thursday morning. “The intelligence community believes that the transfer of the MiG-29 to Ukraine could be mistaken for an escalation and could lead to an escalation of Russia’s relationship with NATO,” he said, “creating a high-risk scenario.” He said that providing Ukraine with anti-tank weapons and air defense systems makes more sense.
Areas captured as of Saturday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Areas captured as of Saturday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Major border crossings with refugees
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Areas captured as of Saturday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Chernobyl
Does not work
controlled
separatists
Areas captured as of Saturday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
Areas captured as of Saturday
Direction of the invasion force
Controlled by or allied with Russia
Major border crossings with refugees
territory of Ukraine recognized by Putin as independent
As civilian casualties mounted, Mr. Zelenskiy stepped up his rhetoric against Moscow, as well as against the West for not establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, which NATO fears could lead to direct conflict with Russia.
“How long will the world be an accomplice of ignoring terror?” Mr. Zelensky tweeted after the maternity hospital bombing. “You have power, but you seem to be losing your humanity.”
A woman evacuated from Irpin arrives at a sorting point in Kyiv.
Photo: Vadim Girda/Associated Press
People evacuated from nearby villages are waiting to see if there are seats on a westbound train in Kyiv.
Photo: Christopher Ochikone for The Wall Street Journal
— Bojan Panczewski, Jared Malsin, James Marson and Max Colchester contributed to this article.
Corrections and additions
Volodymyr Zelensky is the President of Ukraine. In an earlier version of this article, his name was misspelled as Vladimir Zelensky. (Fixed March 10th)
Write to Alan Cullison at [email protected] and Brett Forrest at [email protected]
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