A children’s hospital and maternity ward in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been destroyed by a Russian airstrike this afternoon, Ukrainian officials say. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said children are buried under rubble and the regional governor said 17 people have been wounded. The Guardian could not independently verify this, but video published by the Associated Press showed multiple injured people at the site of the hospital attack. Ukraine has accused Russian forces of “holding 400,000 people hostage” in Mariupol. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said the city, where conditions are described as “apocalyptic”, was still being shelled by Russian troops, despite an agreement to establish a safe evacuation corridor for civilians.
Ukrainian authorities have said the power supply has been cut to the defunct Chernobyl power plant. The national power company Ukrenergo said it was impossible to restore the power lines because of fighting in the surrounding areas. The UN’s atomic watchdog said the spent nuclear fuel stored there had cooled down sufficiently for it not to be an imminent safety concern.
