{"id":552037,"date":"2022-03-10T20:24:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T20:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=5c465b7e955d8dff8fa1c692d4018bde"},"modified":"2022-03-10T20:24:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T20:24:55","slug":"after-russia-accused-of-bombing-maternity-hospital-no-progress-toward-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/03\/10\/after-russia-accused-of-bombing-maternity-hospital-no-progress-toward-ceasefire\/","title":{"rendered":"After Russia Accused of Bombing Maternity Hospital, No Progress Toward Ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

The Russian military invasion of Ukraine has devastated civilian centers such as schools and hospitals. Over 2.2. million people have fled the country, resulting in a dangerous refugee crisis in Europe as Russia refuses to guarantee the \u201chumanitarian corridors\u201d promised for civilians to safely evacuate. \u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about is repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, which is illegal under international law,\u201d says Bel Trew, independent correspondent for The Independent<\/em>, who has been reporting on civilians being targeted in other Ukrainian cities.<\/p>\n

TRANSCRIPT<\/h2>\n

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.<\/em><\/p>\n

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AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> This is Democracy Now!<\/em>, Democracynow.org<\/a>, the War and Peace Report. I\u2019m Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now!<\/em> co-host Nermeen Shaikh. Hi, Nermeen.<\/p>\n

NERMEEN<\/span> SHAIKH<\/span>:<\/strong> Hi Amy, and welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> The Russian invasion of Ukraine has entered its third week with Russia continuing to attack civilian areas. Earlier today the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey but failed to make progress towards a ceasefire. The talks came a day after Ukraine accused Russia of bombing a maternity hospital and a children\u2019s hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol. Three people including a child reportedly died in the strike; 17 were injured. At the talks in Turkey, the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov admitted Russia had shelled the hospital but claimed the building was being used as a base for Ukrainian fighters. The Red Cross described the situation in Mariupol as apocalyptic with many residents cuts off from food, water, power or heat for over a week. The mayor there says 1,200 civilians have been killed over the past 10 days but that figure has not been verified. During the talks in Turkey, Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol through a humanitarian corridor.<\/p>\n

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DMYTRO<\/span> KULEBA<\/span>:<\/strong> The most tragic situation is currently now in the city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. The city is being bombarded from the air. It\u2019s being hit by artillery fire. And I came here with a humanitarian purpose, to walk out from the meeting with the decision to arrange a humanitarian corridor in and from Mariupol, from Mariupol, for civilians who want to flee this area of fear and struggle and humanitarian corridor to bring in Mariupol humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, Minister Lavrov was not in a position to commit himself to it, but he will correspond with respective authorities on this issue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> That\u2019s Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. We begin today\u2019s show with Bel Trew. She is an international correspondent for The Independent<\/em> usually based in Beirut. She has been covering the war in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began two weeks ago. She is joining us now from Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Welcome to Democracy Now!<\/em>, Bel. If you can start off by describing the situation where you are and then we\u2019ll talk about Mariupol and what you understand is taking place there.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> I\u2019m at the moment in Vinnytsia, which is a central city. It\u2019s key for humanitarian aid delivery, but also it\u2019s on the refugee trail because it connects the south of Ukraine, the east of Ukraine, the north of Ukraine to the west. So it\u2019s a very, very crucial city. At the same time however it\u2019s also under bombardment. I\u2019ve just come back from the town\u2019s main airport, Vinnytsia International Airport, that was hit apparently by eight different missiles. It\u2019s totally destroyed. There is also a military base nearby that was destroyed as well. So we\u2019re getting air raid sirens here every hour, pretty much, as well as the fact that this key route for humanitarian aid and refugees.<\/p>\n

NERMEEN<\/span> SHAIKH<\/span>:<\/strong> So far as you know, have civilian areas been targeted there and elsewhere where you have reported from? Can you talk about the attacks on civilian areas?<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> In Vinnytsia, as i said, the International Airport, which is a civilian airport, was pretty badly damaged, but no one was there because of course most people are taking shelter in their basements at the moment. I have been basically going along most of western Ukraine, so even though the frontline is perhaps quite far away, of course the skies are still a problem for people here, which is why every Ukrainian I have met has said, \u201cPlease tell the West, ‘close the skies, create a no-fly zone.’\u201d I was just in a town called Zhytomyr which is just next to Kyiv. It\u2019s the key city before the west of Ukraine. There, we went around a school that had been damaged, a hospital that had been damaged and at least 10 residential homes. So even though that is not on the frontline, Russian troops are about 50 miles down the road, it\u2019s still being bombarded from the sky. This is the key point that Ukrainians keep telling me, is that they cannot win this war if they have to worry about air strikes, missile strikes, shelling, if they don\u2019t have that support from the sky.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Bel, I want to go to one of your video reports where you visited a school complex that had just been heavily damaged by a Russian missile.<\/p>\n

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BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> This is the main school for Zhytomyr. It caters to all ages. The ground floor is preschool but it\u2019s also a secondary school. As you can see it was utterly devastated in a missile strike just yesterday. It\u2019s unclear exactly what the target was, but this is very much a school.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> That was our guest Bel Trew of The Independent<\/em>. She also spoke to a 61-year-old caretaker of the school named Oleh.<\/p>\n

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OLEH<\/span>:<\/strong> [translated] I have been working at this school for almost 15 years as a laborer. We were renovating this with our own hands, every year making it better and better so that the children could focus on learning. Now as we come here i\u2019m speechless. I can\u2019t say anything.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Bel Trew, take that larger and what he is describing.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> What we are talking about is repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure which is illegal under international law. It\u2019s not clear what the target was of that strike. This is very much a school. Thankfully there were no children in it because of the war. But in that same town, as I described, a maternity unit was also destroyed, and several residential homes. Everyone I spoke to said, \u201cWhy is this happening to us? This is a hospital. This is a school. These are homes.\u201d At least four people were killed. And actually in the hospital that I went to, they had to evacuate the pregnant women and a newborn baby to the basement just seconds before the missile struck. One woman actually gave birth in the middle of that strike because of the stress that she was under. They\u2019re now having to build hospitals underground in the basements fearing further assault from the sky. So the question that\u2019s on everyone\u2019s lips here is, \u201cWhy are they targeting civilian infrastructure? Why are they targeting humanitarian corridors?\u201d We\u2019ve seen the horrendous footage from Irpin just outside of Kiev. But also of course as we have been talking earlier, Mariupol, the people here, they feel like it\u2019s vindictive and deliberate.<\/p>\n

NERMEEN<\/span> SHAIKH<\/span>:<\/strong> Bel, from where you have been reporting, the areas you have traveled to, have you in addition of course to hearing about these aerial attacks, have you also, yourself, seen Russian troops or tanks on the streets?<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> For me I haven\u2019t actually seen the Russian troops yet because if you are that close to them then you are pretty much in no man\u2019s land on the frontline. But certainly in the outskirts of Kyiv and other places in the east of the country they are seeing Russian troops. And of course on the coast, in areas like Odesa, they have got a large buildup of Russian ships as well because they are fearing a massive attack from the sea. So in terms of where Russian troop movement is, it\u2019s on the ground, it\u2019s coming from the sky, and also coming from the sea.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> You have been trying to get into Mariupol. You haven\u2019t been able to. You have been speaking with people like the Ukrainian Red Cross. Talk about what you understand is happening, and people right now\u2014it was the focus of the talks in Turkey between the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers\u2014Ukraine was hoping for some kind of ceasefire, safe passage for the people of Mariupol. Right before the broadcast it was bombed again.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> Yeah. When I spoke to the director general of the Ukrainian Red Cross\u2014his teams by the way are responsible for opening those humanitarian corridors. They are the convoys that are on the ground, that are going in to rescue people. He told me they tried four consecutive days in a row to get people out of Mariupol, and every single time their convoy was hit by shelling. He said to me they couldn\u2019t get even a single truck of food into Mariupol. They couldn\u2019t get medical supplies. That\u2019s why the attack on the hospital is so devastating because medical supplies are so low already. He actually told me that he estimates that people there have probably only got between three and five days left of food. We are hearing reports about people melting snow for water, and they don\u2019t have any heating. And I will tell you, it is minus temperatures here. It\u2019s extremely cold. It\u2019s snowing. I cannot even imagine what it\u2019s like to be under heavy shelling, to not have food, to not have any water, to not have any medical supplies, to not be able to get out and to be dealing with this freezing temperature.<\/p>\n

NERMEEN<\/span> SHAIKH<\/span>:<\/strong> Bel, as you know the U.S and the U.K. yesterday expressed concerns that Russia may now deploy unconventional and even chemical weapons. You reported from Syria, on Syria, for over a decade and people have drawn comparisons between Russian military strategy in Ukraine now and what it was in Syria. If you could respond to the concerns being expressed? Also your own experience reporting from Syria and now from Ukraine.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> This is the biggest fear for people here in Ukraine, is we\u2019ve seen what Russia is capable of in Syria. Certainly I\u2019ve been reporting on that crisis, as you said, for over a decade. Specifically since Russia entered the conflict in 2015, human rights organizations have documented the widespread use of banned weapons. I\u2019m talking about chemical weapons, incendiary weapons, cluster munitions, barrel bombs, either directly by Russian forces or Syrian regime forces supported by the Russians. They have literally thrown everything at Syrian civilians. There is no concept of international law in Syria. So the fear that I have is I have seen what they are capable of doing in Syria. Can that happen in Ukraine? While the situation here is desperate, obviously international law has been thrown out the window, and Geneva Conventions have been trampled upon, I don\u2019t think the worst has happened yet. That is my really big fear, is if Russia feels it is been put into a corner, it has been isolated to the world, I have seen what they have done in Syria. I\u2019m very concerned for civilians here in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Do you have any sense of the casualties? Russian casualties, the Ukrainians are saying they have killed 12,000 Russian soldiers. Russia saying there is nothing like that number. I think they have thrown out a number of 500. We don\u2019t know how many Ukrainian military deaths there are, even Ukrainian civilian deaths. Do you have a sense of this?<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> This is a big question, because of course we are seeing very many different narratives. As you aid, the Ukrainians are talking of over 10,000 Russian soldiers killed. The Russians are saying that\u2019s not true at all. And frankly, we can\u2019t verify it. We can\u2019t get to those areas and count bodies. The United Nations I believe is saying over 1,300 casualties. That includes deaths and injuries they\u2019ve documented. But they also have said to me, the officials have told me that\u2019s a woefully low estimate. At the moment there\u2019s whole areas we haven\u2019t been able to access. The mayor of Mariupol has said that thousands of people within his own city have been killed in the last few days. No one can get there to even be able to verify that, and we have seen images coming out of that city of mass graves, of bodies just being put into trenches, basically. So I\u2019m afraid that the death toll is actually much higher than we could ever have imagined, and we may not know that for weeks or even months to come.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> We want to go to another of your reports for The Independent<\/em>, this near the Ukrainian border with Poland.<\/p>\n

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BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> I\u2019m about 40 to 50 kilometers away from the border, and this is the start of the line of cars to the border with Poland where people are beginning to flee. As you can see behind me, people have left their cars and are literally doing it on foot, 40 to 50 kilometers they have got to walk. It\u2019s a 7- to 10-hour walk. People are doing this with their luggage, they\u2019re doing it with their children, and they\u2019re doing it with their pets.<\/p>\n

PERSON<\/span>:<\/strong> It\u2019s too far for me, because the 40 kilometers, we have to go in by walk.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> Fifty.<\/p>\n

PERSON<\/span>:<\/strong> Yeah, 50 kilometers.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> And you\u2019re going to have to walk 50 kilometers?<\/p>\n

PERSON<\/span>:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

PERSON<\/span>:<\/strong> Like I said before, I feel shame. Exhausted, because it\u2019s a long travel, and it\u2019s not over, because for us, 14 buses.<\/p>\n

PERSON<\/span>:<\/strong> Fourteen buses, yeah.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> That\u2019s a report of Bel Trew. Bel, if you can describe finally the Ukraine side of the border. We\u2019re going to talk to the Norwegian Refugee Council on the Polish side of the border. Also, how are you personally staying safe? Journalist after journalist has been wounded, has been shot.<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> Absolutely. Just to talk about the refugees on the Ukrainian side of the border, the scenes have been utterly devastating. I\u2019ve seen families split up because they\u2019ve got family members that are in areas that are under siege or now even occupied by Russian forces. I\u2019ve seen mothers with their children but without their husbands or the fathers, because they\u2019ve had to stay behind because of general mobilization, they\u2019re of fighting age. I\u2019ve seen children traveling alone. I met a 17-year-old boy whose mother and sister are now in occupied Kherson, his father is stuck in Odesa, because he has been signed up, and he himself is traveling on his own. On top of that, as I said in the report before, people were walking 10, 12 hours in the freezing temperatures to get to the border, and sometimes they were being turned back. We had people desperate to get on trains, people driving for days in cars across the country. It has been utterly extraordinary. This is an extraordinary refugee crisis as well.<\/p>\n

To answer your second question talking about keeping safe, we have seen horrendous footage, for example of the British Sky News<\/em> team who came under ambush. We\u2019ve also heard about journalists down south near the coast who have come under fire as well. And as you\u2019ve seen, humanitarian corridors are being hit by mortars which journalists have been present as they\u2019ve been covering it. So really it feels like the international rulebook has been thrown out the window and anything is possible. So as a journalist, you\u2019ve just got to take every security precaution you can, even though it\u2019s a pretty difficult situation.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Are you wearing a bulletproof vest right now?<\/p>\n

BEL<\/span> TREW<\/span>:<\/strong> Yes, I am, and the reason I\u2019m actually wearing this is not necessarily because Vinnytsia, the city behind me, is dangerous, but it\u2019s just because I have been at an airport which has been hit by multiple incoming fire, rockets or missiles, and there was an air raid siren at the time. So we just scrambled to put on our vests just in case, because that airport has been hit at least eight times, and standing there, I didn\u2019t want to be hit again. But certainly Vinnytsia behind me is among the more safer places. It\u2019s just that I literally just came from the airport that had been bombed relatively recently.<\/p>\n

AMY<\/span> GOODMAN<\/span>:<\/strong> Bel Trew, we want to thank you for being with us, international correspondent for The Independent<\/em>, usually based in Beirut, has been covering the war in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began last month, joining us from Vinnytsia, Ukraine. Please stay safe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Amid repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, Russia has refused to guarantee promised “humanitarian corridors.”<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1462,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,44458,24,196,376,45487,45488],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552038,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552037\/revisions\/552038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}