Ukraine has said two more hospitals have been hit by Russian airstrikes, with the country’s president calling for support before it’s “too late”.
The two hospitals in the north-western city of Zhytomyr were damaged in the strikes, according to the city’s mayor.
He said one of them was a maternity hospital, although nobody was injured in the attack.
It comes amid reports Russian airstrikes destroyed a maternity hospital in the south-eastern city of Mariupol – one of the worst-hit areas in the conflict.
The city council said the hospital was hit several times during a supposed ceasefire, called to enable some of the hundreds of thousands of the city’s trapped civilians to flee.
The Ukrainian government has said 1,170 civilians have been killed in Mariupol since the invasion began.
The city’s mayor Dmytro Gurin has called on Europe to do more to protect his country, asking what more lines Russia must cross before NATO will get involved.
“Is the blood of the Ukrainian people red enough?” he asked.
“Putin won't stop with Ukraine and the West could end up with a war on its territory too. You now have to choose. You will ask in two years when they are bombing infrastructure in the middle of Europe - why didn't you close the sky?”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President warned that the West must act before it is “too late”.
In an interview with Sky News at his office in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said western nations must immediately enforce a no-fly zone – again calling Putin’s forces ‘Nazis’.
Asked about the potential of a no-fly zone escalating the conflict, with a direct conflict between NATO and Russia making things worse, he said: “Worse for whom?”
“For our families? No. For them? Who knows? Nobody knows.
“But we know that exactly that now is very bad. And in future it will be too late. Believe me, if it's prolonged this way, you will see... they will close the sky, but we will lose millions of people.”
“The third world war will start and only then you will make a no-fly zone - but it will be too late.”
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin will travel to France later for an informal summit of EU leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the meeting, which will focus on Europe's response to the war in Ukraine.
Informal EU summits don't usually reach agreements for EU action but this meeting in Versailles takes on extra importance.
EU diplomats have agreed in principle to a third round of sanctions against Russia, which will focus on asset seizures and travel bans for oligarchs along with cryptocurrency assets held in Europe.
The talks get underway as Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers prepare for high-level talks in Turkey later today.
Nuclear safety could be on the agenda after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that contact had been lost with two nuclear sites in Ukraine.
The Chernobyl nuclear plant has been running on backup power generators; however, the IAEA yesterday said it saw “no critical impact on safety” due to the loss of power.
Additional reporting from IRN
