Kiev evacuates two hospitals amid fears of possible Russian attack
The city authorities in Kiev has ordered the urgent evacuation of two hospitals in the Ukrainian capital amid fears of a possible Russian missile attack sparked by an internet video.
“This is linked to a video that is being widely circulated by online media, in which a hostile attack on these medical facilities is predicted,” the authorities said on Friday.
The video suggests that military personnel are present in the hospitals, a claim Kiev authorities labelled “a total lie and provocation on the part of the enemy,” accusing of Russia of spreading a false pretext to justify a potential attack on the health facilities.
The patients are being transferred to other medical facilities. According to the statement, one of the affected hospitals is a children’s hospital in Obolon in northern Kiev.
More than two years after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly shelled civilian infrastructure, most notably the country’s energy supply, but hospitals have also been hit.
In other war-related news, Ukraine has received the bodies of 140 soldiers killed while trying to defend the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson from Russian attacks, the authority responsible for prisoner of war matters said on Telegram on Friday.
Five bodies were from the Sumy section in northern Ukraine. Russia has no Ukrainian territories under its control in this area, however at the beginning of March, units of allegedly Russian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine made advances from the Sumy region into Russian territory.
Once the identities of the dead have been established, they will be handed over to their relatives, the authority said.
The authority, known as the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, thanked the International Committee of the Red Cross for arranging the return.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion for over two years. Despite the ongoing fighting, both sides regularly exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers and prisoners of war.
It is not yet known whether and how many dead soldiers Russia has received in return.
On the ground, Russian troops are advancing faster in the area following the capture of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Friday in its daily intelligence update.
“Russian ground forces … have created a narrow salient further into Ukrainian territory to enter the town of Ocheretyne, located approximately 15km north of central Avdiivka,” the MoD wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Ocheretyne in the Donetsk region had a population of around 3,500 before the war began.
Even after the capture of Avdiivka in mid-February, the area remains one of the most important for Russian operations, the MoD added.
“Despite sustaining continued high losses, it is highly likely that [Russian ground forces] are able to continuously target Ukrainian positions in the area and have taken control of several small settlements.”
The British MoD regularly publishes information on the course of the war. Moscow accuses London of disinformation.
