Hospitals in Kiev evacuated after threat from Belarus

In one of the hospitals, Tertel said, Ukrainian soldiers were being treated, hiding “behind the backs of sick children.”

“All these people and their plans are known to us,” said Tertel. “In the fight against terrorism, we act according to the laws of wartime – decisively and without hesitation.”

Kyiv authorities viewed Tertel’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 an attack on these medical institutions, even mentioning the addresses,” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a video he posted on social media and shot himself from the grounds in front of the children’s hospital.

“There would be military personnel in these institutions,” Klitschko said, refuting it as a false claim by Russia “to attack the social infrastructure of the capital.”

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

Klitschko said officials should “do everything to move the patients and medical staff to other medical institutions in our city.”

“This is a complicated and not an easy process,” Klitschko said. “But we can’t risk people’s lives.”

A Washington Post crew arrived at the children’s hospital as the last parents left with their children and the emergency room had been completely evacuated. There were no signs that military personnel were being treated at the scene.

Ihor Zorkov led his daughter Viktoriya, 2, by the hand as they walked down the hallway to the hospital exit, and he juggled three small plastic bags containing her belongings. Viktoriya had been in hospital for the past five days with a viral infection and fever, he said.

“They say we can come back on Monday,” Zorkov said, as Viktoriya began to cry. “There is a risk of attack.”

Yevhenia Hryhoryeva, the chief doctor at the Children’s Hospital, said the evacuation began half an hour after city officials contacted her and was completed within 90 minutes. She declined to say how many children were evacuated.

The hospital did not house Ukrainian soldiers, Hryhoryeva said, although she said she was not surprised by the accusation. There is “a lot of disinformation every day” from Russia and its allies, she said.

“We’re all used to it, so we don’t pay attention to it at all,” she said. “We are only thinking about what actions need to be taken to quickly evacuate the children.”

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

“The representatives of the Belarusian regime, which has completely surrendered its country to Russia, must understand something simple: the people who protect Ukraine from the invaders are heroes, not terrorists,” the SBU said. “Because the real terrorists are in the Kremlin.”

The statement added: “The Belarusian authorities should not frighten the Ukrainians with false statements, but think about how not to end up next to the Kremlin dictator on the embankment in The Hague.”