Report
Ukraine: in Mykolaiv, “why did they decide to bomb a pediatric hospital?”
Audio 01:17
Alexander Plitkin, the chief physician of the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Hospital.
© Boris Vichith/RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Mykolaiv, a town between Odessa and the front, suffered regular bombardments.
Since the beginning of the war, 64 civilians have been killed and 440 injured, notably in attacks with cluster munitions.
Earlier this week, a pediatric hospital was targeted by these weapons, which are wreaking havoc on the civilian population.
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With our special correspondents in Mykolaiv,
Anastasia Becchio
and
Boris Vichith
Behind the hospital, a backhoe loader is in action.
Protective walls are erected around the room which contains the oxygen reserves.
The security of the establishment is revised upwards after the bombardment on Monday: “
A cluster bomb exploded here.
It scatters in all directions.
There was a lot of breakage
."
Behind the Mykolaiv hospital, a backhoe loader erects protective walls around the room which contains the oxygen reserves.
© Boris Vichith/RFI
Broken windows and cracked facades
In the courtyard, the head doctor of the regional pediatric hospital Alexander Plitkin shows the damage: broken windows, cracks on the facades, hundreds of shrapnel on the buildings and on the bitumen, the characteristic impacts of cluster munitions in the form of of rosette.
“
Here parked cars, they were smashed.
Submunitions even landed there, in the other wing, where 18 windows were blown out.
Everywhere there were balls, bits of metal, everything was flying around, it's typical of cluster bombs.
I understood that it was a terrible weapon.
Why did they decide to bomb a pediatric hospital?
It's a big question.
I really don't know what's going on in their head
.
»
The broken windows of the Mykolaiv hospital.
© Boris Vichith/RFI
No patients or caregivers were harmed during the attack, but the explosions claimed casualties outside.
They received first aid in the pediatric hospital.
►Also read: Report - In Mykolaiv, deminers roam the city in search of cluster bombs
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