The United Nations and aid organisations have condemned Russia’s attack on a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the attack “horrific” in a tweet.

“Civilians are paying the highest price for a war that has nothing to do with them. This senseless violence must stop, end the bloodshed now,’’ he asserted.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it could not confirm “this was a targeted attack’’ but that its staff said “houses and hospitals have been damaged during the fighting over the past days.”

“With active shelling, gunfights and aerial bombardment in Ohio Mariupol ongoing, seeking health care have become increasingly hard,” MSF Emergency Manager, Kate White, said in a statement. “Especially for expecting mothers and elderly people who are limited in their movements.”

Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, said she was “horrified by the reported attack today on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, an attack which left young children and women in labour buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings.”

She added, “We do not yet know the number of casualties but fear the worst.’’

Seventeen pregnant women and employees were injured in the bombing, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk Oblast military administration. 

(dpa/NAN)