A hospital in Mariupol treating wounded Ukrainian soldiers and sheltering families with children was reportedly struck by a “powerful bomb” Tuesday as Russia officially declared the start of the “next phase” of its war against Ukraine.
Serhiy Taruta, a Ukrainian lawmaker and the former governor of the Donetsk region, announced the blast in a statement on Facebook.
“According to my information, there are about 300 people underneath the wreckage, among them children. There were wounded defenders and Mariupol residents hiding with children in the surviving part of the hospital,” he wrote. “Cause there’s nowhere to hide in a destroyed city!”
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Mariupol Now, a Telegram channel used by local residents to coordinate evacuation efforts and help locate the missing in the besieged city, cited witnesses who confirmed the explosion and said it was heard 100 kilometers (60 miles) out from the city.
An aide to Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko confirmed the bombing but said local authorities were not aware of any families hiding inside the hospital at the time.
The reported bombing came just hours after audio was released by Ukrainian intelligence that purportedly captured one of Putin’s troops telling family back home their new offensive would include “3-ton” bombs dropped on Ukrainian forces who are fighting to the end to save besieged Mariupol.
“We’re waiting here for ‘surprises’ from Russia… three-ton [ones] from the sky… They said they will flatten the earth... The lieutenant colonel came and said: ‘You will feel it yourselves, and hear it. Imagine the shockwave,’” the man, identified by Ukrainian intelligence as a Russian soldier, said in audio of what Ukraine’s Security Service said was an intercepted call made to his wife back home.
Asked what this would mean for civilians still trapped in the city, he said, “Everyone left. Everyone who wanted to has left. Only patriots and the very smart have remained.”
Ukrainian forces appeared to be in the midst of the final battle to save Mariupol on Tuesday, with intense fighting underway at the Azovstal steel plant, where Ukraine has said at least 1,000 civilians were also taking refuge in underground shelters.
Russia’s Defense Ministry released a statement calling on all Ukrainian servicemen inside the plant to “lay down their arms” and surrender if they want to stay alive, though there was no immediate word on that actually happening. The Ukrainian marines based at the plant had previously issued a video appeal vowing to fight “to the very end.”
While the fiercest fighting was reported in Mariupol, attacks intensified throughout the entire east of the country Tuesday with thousands of civilians trapped. The Ukrainian presidential administration offered a stark warning that “safe places” no longer exist.
“There shouldn’t be any illusions, missile strikes against our cities will keep happening until the very last day of war and safe places no longer exist,” Oleksiy Arestovych, a top aide to the Ukrainian president, warned during televised comments, adding that missile strikes will likely continue “for another month.”
His comments came after Ukrainian authorities on Monday issued desperate pleas for residents in the east of the country to immediately evacuate as the “battle for the Donbas” began.
“There is no time left to think [about evacuating]. Decisions must be made quickly,” Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk regional administration, warned on Telegram, lamenting that thousands of civilians in one town had not yet evacuated, making them “hostages to the Russians.”
All evacuation corridors were closed Tuesday, for the third day in a row, due to intensifying attacks, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with India Today, said what happens next will prove to be an “important moment” in Moscow’s “special operation” against Ukrainians.
Claiming with a straight face that the aggression is necessary to protect “ethnic Russians” in Ukraine, he appeared not to rule out the possibility of nuclear weapons—promising that the Kremlin would stick to “ordinary” weapons “at this stage.”
“The operation is continuing, the next phase of this special operation is starting right now. And, it seems to me, it will be an important moment of this special operation,” he told India Today.
He went on to blame the West for the war, and reiterated the Kremlin’s claim that “our army has only been targeting military infrastructure and not civilians.”
Asked about evidence of Russian war crimes in Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where at least 400 civilians were found executed after Russian forces were forced to retreat, he suggested such claims were “false” and said “the West is not paying attention to our facts.”
The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed the civilian executions were “staged” by Ukraine and its Western allies, but on Tuesday announced that it would not initiate an international investigation to get to the bottom of the massacre.
A day before Lavrov’s remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded honors to the Russian military brigade accused of being behind the civilian slaughter in Bucha, lauding the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade’s “skillful and resolute actions” along with their supposed “selflessness and high professionalism.”
