Attack on Ukrainian hospital draws outrage as talks stall

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian airstrike on a Mariupol maternity hospital that killed three people drew outrage on Thursday, with Ukrainian and Western officials branding it a war crime. As talks to reach a broad cease-fire failed, emergency workers renewed efforts to get vital food and medical supplies into besieged cities, and to get traumatized residents out.

Ukrainian authorities said a child was among the dead in Wednesday’s attack in the crucial southern port of Mariupol. Another 17 people were wounded, including women waiting to give birth, doctors and children buried in the rubble.

Images of pregnant women covered in dust and blood dominated news reports in many countries, and brought a new wave of horror at the 2-week-old war sparked by Russia’s invasion, which has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, driven more than 2 million people from Ukraine and shaken the foundations of European security.

Millions more have been displaced inside the country. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday that about 2 million people — half the residents of the capital’s metropolitan area — have left the city, which has become virtually a a fortress.

“Every street, every house … is being fortified,” he said in televised remarks. “Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands.”