Russian shelling destroyed all medical institutes, hospitals in Luhansk, claims Ukraine

The Russian military has destroyed all medical institutes and hospitals in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, said the head of the Luhansk regional state administration, Sergey Gaidai on Thursday. In a facebook post, the official said: “Since the beginning of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, every medical institution in our region has been shelled."

He further shared many photographs of the destroyed Rubizhne hospital in the same post, which was a "new" medical facility and was equipped with cutting-edge technology. According to CNN, Gaida has blamed the hospital's senior doctor for treason after he agreed with Moscow's claim that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the destruction of the facility.

These remarks came just a few days after Vitalii Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration, has provided a photo and video of a Russian bomb hitting a children's hospital. A bombardment was seen pounding the children's hospital grounds, where ambulances were parked, according to a video obtained by Republic. One of the ambulances, which had been entirely wrecked by the shelling, was spotted emitting black smoke. Kim also posted a photo of a playground after the incident, according to Ukrinform. 

According to Ukraine Pravda, Russian soldiers fired cluster bombs toward Mykolaiv on April 4 afternoon. Cluster bombing killed ten people, including a child, and wounded 61 others. 

UN raises concern about attacks on hospitals

In the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, United Nations General-Secretary Antonio Guterres warned on March 27 that the right to health must be respected. "The right to health must be protected," the UN chief said in a tweet in response to Russia's attack on healthcare institutions. Guterres took to Twitter to provide statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which stated it has confirmed 72 attacks on Ukraine's healthcare institutions since the conflict began. 

Zelenskyy's interview to Republic

Meanwhile, during an exclusive interview with Republic's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked the United Nations. The President said, “UN can do a lot.  Simply using the words, ‘we are concerned about’ it is not enough to stop the war. We have heard “concern” for 8 years. Not too many of our citizens survived after they raised their 'concern’”.   

(Image: AP)