Hospitals evacuated in Kiev after threat from Belarus

Ukrainian military personnel were being treated in a hospital, Turtel said, by hiding “behind the backs of sick children”.

“All these people and their plans are known to us,” Turtel said. “In the fight against terrorism, we act decisively and without hesitation in accordance with the laws of war.”

Kiev officials viewed Turtel’s statement – ​​which was posted as a video on the Internet – as a possible warning of a missile or drone attack.

“The enemy actually announced attacks on these medical institutions, even giving out the addresses,” Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a video posted on social media.

“Allegedly there are military personnel in these institutions,” Klitschko said, calling it a false claim directed at Russia “to attack the social infrastructure of the capital.”

Belarus is allied with Russia and has allowed Moscow’s forces to use its territory to invade Ukraine from the north in February 2022. However, since then, Lukashenko has resisted Russia’s pressure to directly involve Belarusian forces in the war.

Klitschko said authorities had to “do everything possible to evacuate patients and medical personnel to other medical institutions in our city.”

“It’s a complicated and not easy process,” Klitschko said. “But we cannot put people’s lives at risk.”

A Washington Post team arrived at the children’s hospital just as the last parents were leaving with their children and the emergency ward had been completely emptied. There was no sign of any military personnel being treated at the compound.

Ihor Zhorkov walked down the corridor to walk him out of the hospital, holding the hand of his 2-year-old daughter Victoria, and he placed three small plastic bags with her belongings. He said, Victoria was in the hospital for the last five days due to viral infection and fever.

“They say we can come back on Monday,” Zhorkov said, as Victoria began to cry. “There is danger of attack.”

Yevgenia Hryhoryeva, chief physician of the children’s hospital, said the evacuation began half an hour after city officials contacted them and was completed within 90 minutes. He declined to say how many children were evacuated.

Hryhoryeva said the hospital was not sheltering Ukrainian service members, though she said she was not surprised by the allegation. There is “a lot of misinformation every day” coming from Russia and its allies, he said.

“We’re all used to it, so we don’t pay attention to it at all,” he said. “We only think about what actions need to be taken to get the children out quickly.”

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said in a statement that reports of “legendary terrorists who are allegedly in Ukrainian hospitals” were “a form of information and psychological special operations that play into the hands of the Russian Federation.”

“Representatives of the Belarusian regime, who have completely surrendered their country to Russia, should understand one simple thing – those who defend Ukraine from the invaders are heroes, not terrorists,” the SBU said. “Because the real terrorists are in the Kremlin.”

The statement said: “The Belarusian authorities should not scare Ukrainians with false statements, but should think about how not to stand in the dock in The Hague next to the Kremlin dictator.”