Inside Politics: Putin’s bombing of maternity hospital is a ‘war crime’, Ukraine says

At least 17 injured after bomb rains down on medical facility in Mariupol, writes Matt Mathers

(AP)

As is often the case in war, it is the human stories on the ground that reveal the true scale of tragedy and suffering. A picture of a pregnant woman being evacuated from a bombed maternity hospital in Mariupol – featuring on several front pages this morning – lays bare the grim reality of Putin’s brutal campaign in Ukraine. Lying on a stretcher, dazed and confused but still clutching onto the life insider her, the woman’s story needs no words. Under current rules, thousands of women just like her and their children are not allowed to seek refuge in the UK, unless they have family here. Boris Johnson is coming under increasing pressure to relax visa rules for those wanting to flee the war, but he and other government ministers have repeatedly ruled this out on security grounds. What threat do women like the one in the picture and their children pose to the country?

Inside the bubble

• Commons proceedings get underway at 9.30am with Defra questions, followed by any urgent questions and the weekly parliamentary business statement from Commons leader, Mark Spencer. After that comes any other ministerial statements. The main business will be a backbench debate marking Tuesday’s International Women’s Day. The debate will be led by the former cabinet minister Maria Miller.

Coming up:

– Armed forces minister James Heappey on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.15am

– Shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband on BBC Breakfast at 8.35am

Daily Briefing

• BARBARIC: Nearly all major UK news outlets lead this morning with horrific images from Mariupol, where Putin’s forces bombed a maternity hospital among other medical centres. Ukraine said Russia dropped “several bombs” on the hospital during what was meant to be a ceasefire to allow civilians to be evacuated. At least 17 people have been injured. Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukraine president, described the attack as “barbaric” as he again urged the west to intervene to prevent what he described as “genocide”. He also said the attack was a war crime. That anger is echoed across the front pages and news websites: “Barbaric”, says the Daily Mirror alongside an image of a pregnant mother being evacuated from the ruins of the building where she and others had been preparing to bring new life into the world. “Depraved”, says the Daily Mail, which runs the same picture. Bombs also fell on two hospitals in another city west of Kyiv. The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that it has confirmed 18 attacks on medical facilities since the Russian invasion began two weeks ago. “Today Russia committed a huge crime,” said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the rubble of the Mariupol hospital. “It is a war crime without any justification.”

• CHEMICAL WEAPONS FEARS: The increasingly barbaric tactics being used by Putin are raising concerns that his forces could be gearing up to use chemical weapons in the war, which is entering its third week and still not playing out how Moscow had hoped. The Kremlin yesterday admitted to using thermobaric weapons, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence, and western officials – in London and Washington – voiced “serious concern” that Putin may resort to deploying non-conventional weapons if his troops continue to meet fierce resistance. “I think we’ve got good reason to be concerned about the possible use of non-conventional weapons, partly because we’ve seen what has happened in other theatres – for example in Syria – partly because we see a bit of setting the scene for that in the sort of false-flag claims that are coming out, and some other indications,” one official said when asked about the threat. “It’s a serious concern for us.” Ukraine and Russia’s foreign ministers meet later today in Antalya, Turkey for the first high-level talks between the two countries since Putin invaded his Slavic neighbours, although the chances of a breakthrough are slim as Zelensky remains defiant that his country will not give in to Kremlin demands. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is on a visit to the US where she will deliver a lecture at the Atlantic Council think tank, in Washington DC, and warn that Ukraine invasion has “shattered” confidence in global security “on scale of 9/11”. We’ll have all the latest updates on our liveblog.

• CHILDREN ARE NOT TERRORISTS: Boris Johnson is coming under increasing pressure to relax visa rules for Ukrainians fleeing the war as he faces accusations that the UK is taking a “mean-spirited” approach to helping its European neighbours. Around 850 people have so far been issued a visa under the Home Office’s family migration scheme, announced on Friday – despite tens of thousands with family links to the UK applying. For comparison, the Republic of Ireland, which has a population about one twelfth the size of the UK, has so far taken 2,500. At PMQs yesterday, the prime minister repeated his misleading claim that “no country in Europe has done more to settle vulnerable people since 2015 than the UK”, as he pushed back against calls to extend the scheme. He and other government ministers have repeatedly said that waiving visa requirements would present a security threat, in that Russian agents could infiltrate the system. But as Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prstaiko, pointed out to MPs at the home affairs committee, children are “definitely not terrorists”. He urged the UK to drop the bureaucratic read tape around its system. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman called for “immediate action” to enable refugees to get their cases dealt with swiftly by removing “unnecessary delays and bureaucracy” in the visa application process.

• COST OF LIVING LATEST: Also at PMQs, the PM rejected calls to offer more help on energy costs amid the cost of living squeeze, as Labour leader Keir Starmer warned that war in Ukraine could force a further £1,000 spike in household bills this autumn. Starmer called for “urgent” help for households and an expansion of nuclear and renewable power, funded by a windfall tax on oil companies. Johnson, who continues to resist calls for a windfall tax on oil and gas giants, dismissed Starmer’s plea, accusing the Labour leader of being “absolutely out of his mind”.He mocked Starmer for reversing Labour’s previous opposition to nuclear, and warned that additional taxes on oil giants - which have earned bumper profits as prices spiral upwards - would simply be passed on to consumers.

• SANCTIONS LATEST: The PM committed to imposing the “maximum economic cost” on Russia as the foreign secretary is expected to say aggression like Vladimir Putin’s must “never again” be allowed to “grow unchecked”. In a call on Wednesday evening, the PM joined Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in condemning the strike on a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol. He noted that this, together with reports Russian forces had failed to respect ceasefire agreements, was “yet further evidence that Putin was acting with careless disregard for international humanitarian law”, Downing Street said.

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On the record

“It’s clear that we need to move away from reliance on Russian hydrocarbons, so everybody would expect the prime minister to look at all options.”

Spokesperson for PM says he will consider reintroducing fracking.

From the Twitterati

“Obviously, baseload nuclear is necessary too, but in terms of a quick bang-for-buck for taxpayers, onshore wind is the way to go. As for expanding North Sea gas/oil, that won’t change fact that renewables are now much cheaper forms of energy generation.”

i chief politics commentator Paul Waugh says renewable energy is the way to go.

Essential reading

• Salma Shah, The Independent: Pakistani PM Imran Khan berates the west – while enjoying its generosity
• Sean O’Grady, The Independent: Has Biden’s rejection of MiG-29 fighter jets lost the war against Russia?
• David Aaronovitch, The Times: Britain’s record on refugees is nothing to brag about
• Michael Schuman, The Atlantic: China’s Russia risk

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