Ukraine says Russia bombed children's hospital in besieged Mariupol

Russia bombes a children's hospital in the besieged port of Mariupol

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of bombing a children's hospital in the besieged port of Mariupol during an agreed ceasefire to enable civilians trapped in the city to escape.

Russia had said it would hold fire to let thousands of civilians flee Mariupol and other besieged cities on Wednesday. But the city council said the hospital had been hit several times by an air strike, Qazet.az reports.

"The destruction is colossal," it said in an online post.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called it an "atrocity".

"Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage," he said on Twitter.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by Reuters for comment on the reported bombing, said: "Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry posted video footage of what it said was the hospital showing holes where windows should have been in a three-storey building. Huge piles of smouldering rubble littered the scene.