Russian troops seized a hospital in Mariupol and took about 500 people hostage during another assault on the southern port city late Tuesday, regional leader Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Russians troops drove 400 people from neighboring houses into Regional Intensive Care Hospital, Kyrylenko said on the messaging app Telegram. About 100 doctors and patients also are believed to be inside, he said.
The troops are using those inside the hospital as human shields and are not allowing anyone to leave, he said.
“It’s impossible to leave the hospital, they are shooting hard,” Kyrylenko said.
Kyrylenko said the main building of the hospital has been heavily damaged by shelling, but medical staff are continuing to treat patients in makeshift wards set up in the basement.
He called on the world to respond to these “gross violations of the norms and customs of war, these egregious crimes against humanity.”
The Ukrainian army’s General Staff says Russian troops are trying to block off the city from the western and eastern outskirts of the city. “There are significant losses,” it said in a Facebook post.