In Kyiv, patients are being evacuated following statements from the Belarusian KGBCommittee for State Security.– the boss Ivan Tertel.
To a gathering of business leaders, top bureaucrats, government politicians and President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Tertel made accusations against two hospitals in the Ukrainian capital.
From the podium, he claimed that two of the city’s hospitals provide medical treatment to “terrorists” and that Ukrainian soldiers are “hiding behind children”. Then he promised “to punish” them. The speech was broadcast on the state channel Belta.
Belarus’ intelligence chief in the KGB
– There is no doubt. They will all suffer a well-deserved punishment, even though they have chosen hospitals in Kyiv as their nests, Tertel said. Wounded soldiers are entitled to protection and medical treatment in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
It has raised fears of a possible Belarusian attack on the Ukrainian capital.
“Lies and provocation”
The city administration of Kyiv rejects the accusations that soldiers receive care in the hospitals.
– This is an absolute lie and a provocation from the enemy, which they use to justify an attack on the capital, says the city administration.
Furthermore, they say that in a video that will circulate on social media, what they refer to as a clear threat is presented. However, they do not say anything about what the threat actually is.
Belarus is not an active party to the war in Ukraine, but the government in Minsk is a close ally of Moscow. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, part of the invasion force came via Belarus.
The city administration has chosen to evacuate the two hospitals that were mentioned in Tertel’s speech.
One of them is a children’s hospital.
– They say we can come back on Monday. There is a danger of an attack, says the father Igor Zorkov to The Washington Post’s reporter, as he takes his two-year-old daughter out of the hospital.
Throughout the day, ambulances run up and down the street Bahhovutivska. All of them have been loaded with frightened child patients, despairing parents and also adult patients.
mayor of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine
– Do everything we can
Mayor Vitaly Klitschko met in front of the hospital.
– We are doing everything we can to protect the children and their parents, the adult patients and the staff from all forms of attack against these facilities, which were announced by the aggressor, he says in a post on Telegram.
Since 2022, Russia has carried out several – and often violent – airstrikes against Ukraine. The Kremlin denies carrying out targeted attacks against civilians. But photos, videos, reports and independent reports, including from the OSCE, have documented attacks against the civilian population.
Also read: VG at the Ukraine front
