- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- Agha defies England as Pakistan post 515-8 in first Test
- September second-warmest on record: EU climate monitor
- Pastor wanted by US for sex trafficking to run for Philippine senate
- Mozambican writer Mia Couto dreams future leaders set an 'example'
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case cleared in separate sex crimes trial
- Israel expands offensive against Hezbollah in south Lebanon
RBGPF | -0.46% | 60.52 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.29% | 6.97 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.29% | 24.641 | $ | |
RIO | -4.42% | 66.675 | $ | |
SCS | -1.33% | 12.78 | $ | |
GSK | -1.59% | 38.026 | $ | |
NGG | 0.61% | 65.88 | $ | |
BTI | 0.04% | 35.215 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.25% | 24.851 | $ | |
AZN | 0% | 76.87 | $ | |
RELX | 1.27% | 46.63 | $ | |
JRI | -0.15% | 13.16 | $ | |
BCC | 0.56% | 142.06 | $ | |
VOD | -0.31% | 9.66 | $ | |
BCE | -0.03% | 33.52 | $ | |
BP | -3.5% | 32.02 | $ |
Kyiv maternity unit becomes frontline clinic after attack
A young Ukrainian mother was recovering after giving birth to twins in one of Kyiv's top maternity hospitals when shrapnel punched a hole in the window, scattering shattered glass inside.
The next day, after a night in a bunker, she and the other mothers and babies were evacuated and the clinic became a frontline aid station for wounded soldiers and civilians.
On Thursday, with the world stunned by the far more devastating Russian strike on another maternity unit in the southern city of Mariupol, the hospital director had a message for Western leaders.
Valeriy Zukin was a world-renowned expert in maternal health and CEO of a private clinic in the wooded suburbs of northern Kyiv. Now he is running emergency care for the war wounded.
He does not want humanitarian aid from the West -- he wants Ukraine to have political and military support, to enable it to see off the Russian invasion without surrender.
"I have lots of questions from abroad: 'Which kinds of humanitarian therapy do you need?' I prefer to buy the pills, not to receive from charity," he told AFP.
"It's like asking a man with a noose round his neck if he needs water. First get the noose off our necks."
Zukin's Leleka clinic, a short distance from the frontline village of Horenka, has not suffered the massive destruction of the Mariupol maternity hospital which was hit by Russian air strikes on Wednesday, triggering global outrage.
But the glass in the front door of the hospital was shattered by shrapnel, and there are two holes in the facade, one where the post-natal recovery room hosting the recovering mother was hit.
Now the mothers and babies are gone, sent home or moved to hospitals further from the guns, in central Kyiv.
But Leleka remains open, and an olive green military ambulance -- itself pockmarked by shrapnel hits -- is parked behind the statue of a stork bearing a child.
- Outgoing artillery -
And in the wintry woods around the clinic there's the dull thud of outgoing artillery and mortar fire -- the Russian forces are now barely six kilometres (four miles) away.
The job of bringing wounded civilians to the clinic falls to 43-year-old Vasyl Oksak, the local commander in Ukraine's civil rescue service.
"There have been harsh clashes some six kilometres from here," the 43-year-old told AFP.
"Our soldiers are here, repelling the enemy. The evacuation of civilians is underway from the parts of the village where there is no fighting currently."
His area includes the village of Horenka, a loosely spread community of modest detached homes and gardens on the edge of the municipal boundary.
Several of the homes have been hit by Grad missiles, fired from Russian truck-mounted multiple-launch rocket systems.
One house stands roofless and burnt out while behind it the plastic walls of a greenhouse have been ripped by the blast, exposing a full crop of spring crocuses to the chill blast of winter.
Many of the damaged homes are deserted, with listless dogs and cats wandering among the broken glass, begging for food from strangers and nosing at the frozen water in their bowls.
Chickens have the run of debris-strewn gardens, which often have corrugated metal fences, now twisted and flapping in the wind and punctured with holes from missile shrapnel.
- Direct hit -
"The shell hit this wall and there was a natural gas pipe," Oksak told AFP during a tour of the wreckage, uncovering a twisted lump of metal that had been ripped into dangerous projectiles.
"This is a child's chair, these are a child's shoes," he said. "See this, this was a child's room. Children were living here."
Nearby, a white minibus was completely destroyed by a direct hit, but soldiers walking between their checkpoints paid it no more attention than they do to the sound of tanks manoeuvring in the woods.
According to local retiree Nataliya Mykolaivna, 64, the minibus had belonged to volunteers bringing supplies and gifts to frontline soldiers and hard-pressed residents.
"These guys drove here and stopped their van. They had some boxes with sweets. We were standing over there and they told us, 'Come here, let us give you some sweets'," she said.
"We approached, five or six people. They were about to give us some boxes and suddenly they were targeted," she said. "Yes, they were targeted, it was a direct hit."
A.Mahlangu--AMWN