A Russian drone struck the maternity ward of the city hospital in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odesa Oblast, on the morning of 1 June — International Children's Day. Six new mothers with their newborns were inside the building, along with one woman in active labor, Odesa Regional Military Administration head Oleh Kiper reports.
Medical facilities are doubly protected under international humanitarian law: hospitals under the Geneva Convention IV Articles 18–22, and maternity facilities specifically under Article 14, which extends safeguards to "expectant mothers and mothers of children under seven."
Fortunately, the patients and staff were not injured, Kiper says.
30 windows out, facade gone
The drone destroyed the facade and doors of the maternity ward and the hospital's administrative building and shattered more than 30 windows, Kiper adds.
Second maternity strike in Odesa Oblast this year
The Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi attack follows a 28 March 2026 Shahed drone strike on a maternity hospital in the city of Odesa itself: Russia hit the facility while approximately 80 people, including patients and staff, were inside, according to Euromaidan Press.
A multi-organization report documented more than 700 Russian attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities in the first year of the full-scale war alone.
War in Ukraine, day 15: Russia bombs maternity ward in Mariupol, deploys conscripts
The count has continued to climb since the March 2022 Russian airstrike on the Mariupol maternity hospital that became one of the war's defining images.
Both countries observe 1 June as Children's Day
Russia and Ukraine each mark 1 June as International Children's Day, an observance carried over from the Soviet era. Ukraine marks it with public celebrations across the country and plans events for displaced children from frontline areas. The Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi maternity ward, where Ukrainian babies were being born on the morning Russia chose to strike, sits roughly 70 kilometers southwest of Odesa, well outside the immediate front line.
