The WHO says there have been 18 attacks on Ukrainian health facilities since the start of the Russian invasion

Russia has attacked 18 medical facilities since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced after the Russian air attack destroyed the maternity hospital in the besieged Black Sea port of Mariupol.

The attack on Mariupol came at a time when tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians are desperately trying to leave the areas under constant Russian bombing, which is not diminishing despite intensive diplomacy and increasing Western sanctions against Moscow.

The attack, which Ukrainian officials said injured at least 17 people, sparked a wave of international condemnation from Washington, London and the Vatican, among others.

The bombing of a Mariupol hospital came after humanitarian corridors set up to help civilians flee several besieged cities across Ukraine failed as much as expected due to continued fighting, leaving hundreds of thousands of prisoners without basic supplies due to an unprovoked Moscow invasion.

The WHO said on March 9 that it had confirmed 18 attacks on medical facilities since the start of the Russian invasion two weeks ago and that they had confirmed ten deaths in attacks on health facilities and ambulances since the start of the fighting.

The Mariupol City Council said that the Russian attack on the hospital on March 9 caused "huge" damage, while President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter that "people, children under the ruins" of the hospital. He called the strike a "horror" as authorities tried to determine how many people had been killed or wounded.

"Today, Russia committed a huge crime," said Vladimir Nikulin, a regional police official who is in the wreckage. "It's a war crime without any justification."

In Zhytomyr, a city of 260,000 people, about 150 kilometers west of Kiev, bombs fell on two hospitals, one of which is a children's hospital, Mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said on Facebook. He said no one was injured.

The White House condemned the "barbaric" use of force against civilians.

"It is horrible to see the barbaric use of military force to persecute innocent civilians in a sovereign country," said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

"There are few things more corrupt than targeting the vulnerable and helpless," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be called "to answer for his horrific crimes."

The attack came on a day when Russia said its forces would "respect the truce" on March 9th to ensure safe passage for civilians seeking to leave five cities: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mariupol.

"Russia continues to hold more than 400,000 people hostage in Mariupol, blocking humanitarian aid and evacuation. Indiscriminate shelling continues," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. "Nearly 3,000 newborn babies lack medication and food."

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, 516 people have been killed and 908 injured