As the markets "discount" a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis and all eyes turn to tomorrow's meeting, on Turkish soil, between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, the Russian attack earlier today on a maternity hospital in Mariupol - resulting in 17 people being injured, including pregnant women - triggers a new tension between Kiev and Moscow.
In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented that "before the maternity hospital was bombed, Ukrainian nationalists had evacuated it of staff and inpatients and taken up battle positions," explaining that this was the reason for the targeted bombing by the Russians.
But images of the attack showed injured pregnant women being carried on stretchers out of the building immediately after the attack, while there appeared to be no sign of the Uranian battalions that Zakharova cited to justify the Russians targeting the maternity hospital.
Ukraine's own president, Volodymyr Zelensky, posted a video after the attack, asking how much longer the world will ignore Russian terrorism and calling for Ukraine's airspace to be closed. He even called atrocity the attack.
His outrage was also expressed by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who wrote that few things are more perverse than targeting unprotected people. The White House took a similar position.
The airstrike on the Mariupol maternity hospital resulted in the facade of the building being almost completely destroyed, with police and soldiers rushing to remove people from the scene.
Footage released by the Ukrainian side shows, among other things, a pregnant woman being removed from the rubble.
In any case, and despite hopes for a diplomatic de-escalation of the crisis, the Russian siege continues. Kiev is being hit, but Ukrainian defenses appear to be organized and awaiting a possible invasion, while bombing has inflicted blows and casualties on dozens of Ukrainian districts.
Indeed, according to with the British Ministry of Defence, the Russians have admitted to using thermobaric bombs, which are forbidden to use when there is a risk of civilians being hit.
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