“We can’t leave”: Russians accused of holding hospital staff and patients “hostage”
<p dir="ltr">Officials of Ukraine’s besieged city Mariupol <a href="https://www.news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-war-updates-mariupol-hospital-staff-patients-taken-hostage/news-story/290f75e5198aed84789d7d8d27c3bc67" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have claimed</a> that 400 hospital staff and patients have been taken as “hostages” by Russian forces.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We received information that the Russian army captured our biggest hospital,” Sergei Orlov, Mariupol’s deputy mayor, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60757133" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the BBC</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Pavlo Kirilenko, the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, took to Facebook to share an account from a hospital employee who managed to communicate with authorities.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Russian occupiers in Mariupol took doctors and patients hostage,” Mr Kirilenko <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pavlokyrylenko.donoda/posts/506102444405648" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“One of the hospital employees had time to pass this news.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“‘It is impossible to get out of the hospital. There is heavy shooting, we sit in the basement. Vehicles have not been able to drive to the hospital for two days. </p>
<p dir="ltr">“‘The Russians forced 400 people from neighbouring houses to come to our hospital. We can’t leave’.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr Kirilenko added that the hospital had been “practically destroyed” by the Russian forces, but that staff have continued to work and treat patients in the basement.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I appeal to international human rights organisations to respond to these vicious violations of the norms and customs of war, to these blatant crimes against humanity,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Russia and every citizen involved in crimes in Ukraine must be punished!”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mr Kirilenko said the hospital holding the “hostages” was the same one that was damaged by a strike last week, as Mariupol continued to suffer constant shelling.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Russian troops have surrounded the city for nearly two weeks, with gas, running water and electricity cut off to the estimated 350,000 residents trapped there.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The local council said about 2,000 cars left the city on Tuesday, with 2,000 others waiting to leave.</p>
<p dir="ltr">However, as food and medical supplies dwindle, no aid has been allowed in.</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>
