Two Kyiv Hospitals Evacuating Over Feared Russian Strikes

Officials in Ukraine's capital Kyiv announced the evacuation of two hospitals on Friday, fearing they could be targeted by Russian strikes.

“The city urgently beginning to evacuate two hospitals... because a video is widely circulated online, actually de facto announcing an enemy attack on these medical facilities,” Kyiv's city administration said.

It referred to comments made by the head of the KGB in Moscow-allied Belarus, who said on national television that the buildings hosted military personnel that he said were “hiding behind sick children” – suggesting that this would make it a legitimate military target.

The city of Kyiv denounced the claim as “an absolute lie and provocation of the enemy, trying to use this to strike the social infrastructure of the capital.”

One of the facilities, located on Bogatyrska Street, is a children's hospital, Kyiv said.

“Kyiv authorities are now doing everything possible to move patients and doctors to other medical facilities in the capital,” the administration said.

The World Health Organization has recorded at least 1,682 attacks against Ukraine’s health care system since the beginning of the war.

These caused 128 deaths and 288 injuries, according to WHO statistics released in early April.