Russia issued dozens of missile attacks on Ukraine, causing air raid alerts to be heard all over the country on Wednesday. According to The New York Times, the Russian strikes hit a maternity ward and damaged critical infrastructure.
Overnight, rockets attacked a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine killing a newborn baby. The Guardian reports that a woman and her 2-day-old child were at the ward when it was hit — rescuers were able to rescue the mother from the destroyed facility, but the baby died.
In response to the devastating loss, Zaporizhzhia region governor Oleksandr Starukh said in the Telegram app, “Grief fills our hearts — a baby who had just appeared in the world has been killed.”
The boy, who was born in the front-line town of Vilniansk, Zaporizhia region, lived for only two days.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) November 23, 2022
He was killed by a russian missile. His mother’s life is saved.#russiaisaterroriststate pic.twitter.com/gdgnbL0KA4
The maternity ward, as well as a nearby clinic that was hit, have been completely destroyed, per ABC News.
More strikes on infrastructure came on Wednesday as well, causing outages in regions of Ukraine. CNN reports that there are power outages in Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa regions due to the missile strikes.
The Russian attacks are leaving many civilians without key services in Ukraine’s cold weather. Air alerts were issued across the majority of Ukraine, and citizens were instructed to take shelter.
Russia has escalated its attacks on civilian targets and critical energy infrastructure recently as it endures losses on the battlefield. The recent strikes killed three people and wounded 20 people in Kyiv.
Almost throughout the territory of Ukraine was
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 23, 2022
an air alert has been issued. pic.twitter.com/WM2IhcCZkL