Ukrainians ‘crouch in rubble as steel mill hospital is blown up by Russian bomb’ – World News

A video believed to be from inside the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol shows people huddled in the dark, covered in rubble after the makeshift hospital was blown up by a Russian bomb

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Ukraine: Aftermath of attack on military hospital in Azovstal

Horrific scenes of people being treated in the dark while others dig in rubble were shown in a shelled makeshift hospital at a Mariupol steel mill.

A desperate battle has been raging in the strategic southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol for weeks, with militants refusing to surrender and Russian shells leaving them wrecked.

While Russia claims most of the city, Ukrainians still hold onto the massive Azovstal Steelworks.

Now a video has been shared by the far-right Azov Brigade believed to be from a military field hospital at the steel mill after another Russian bombardment.

Haunting images show terrified people taking shelter in the darkness after the blast, with the room lit by a red light. Someone tries to pour water on an injured person while another digs through debris.

The attack is believed to have injured 600 people, including children and the elderly, while medical supplies ran out.

Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of the Ukrainian Army’s 36th Brigade, said the hospital was hit directly.

The naval commander of Ukraine told Sky news : “The situation is difficult. About 600 people have wounds of varying degrees of severity. We wounded civilians, 100 of them … more than 50 children and the elderly. As for medical supplies, they are lacking. Last night, there was a direct one Hit by an aerial bomb on the shelter of the military hospital.

“I can say that the city is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. She was completely erased from the face of the earth. The Ukrainian garrison of Mariupol holds defensive lines at the Azovstal Works and at the approaches to it. The rest of the territory is controlled by Russian troops.”

He said there had been constant strikes at the steel mills and that tanks and other firearms had hit residential buildings at close range.

Major Volyna said: “The operating room was completely destroyed, only field conditions, we can no longer operate on the wounded. The situation is critical. Medical support is lacking. The conditions under which soldiers and civilians, children and the elderly alike are trying to survive are just terrible.”

It comes as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, where they focused in part on evacuating Ukrainian militants and civilians holed up at the steelworks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to the involvement of the United Nations and the Red Cross in the evacuation of the plant during separate talks with Guterres on Tuesday in Moscow. Ukrainian officials fear Russia wants to capture those trapped, a claim Moscow denies.

The West believes that fighting for Mariupol and other eastern and southern areas could determine the outcome of the war. Russian forces are now entrenched in the east, where Moscow-backed separatists have held some territory since 2014, and also hold part of the south they captured in March.

The General Staff of Ukraine said Russia is stepping up its military offensive in Donbass.

“The enemy is increasing the pace of offensive operations. The Russian occupiers are exerting intense fire in almost all directions,” it said.