"We’ve seen the media reports about a maternity hospital in Donetsk. This is extremely troubling. Any attack on civilian infrastructure, especially health facilities, is a clear violation of international law," Dujarric said on Monday.
On Monday, a Sputnik correspondent reported that a Ukrainian shell hit the roof of a maternity hospital in Donetsk, and women in labor were evacuated to the building's basement. Thanks to the prompt actions of the staff, casualties were avoided.
The UN on Monday also urged all parties to the conflict in Ukraine to respect international humanitarian law amid increased shelling of Donetsk by Ukrainian forces, including a strike on a city market that killed three and injured 18 others.
In response to the developments, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said he saw no condemnation by Western media of the shelling by Ukrainian troops.
"Where is Western Media reaction? All those @BBCWorld, @ReutersWorld, @AFP etc who were shouting about damage to maternity hospital in Mariupol used by Ukrainian nationalists as a firing position? #Ukraine is deliberately targeting civilians. Will we hear a word of condemnation?" Polyanskiy wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, as another civilian in Donetsk was killed as a result shelling by Ukrainian troops earlier on Monday, the total number of victims among Donetsk residents since the day began was five people, the representative office of the DPR in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) said in the evening.
The day overall saw Donetsk subjected to the most intensive shelling of the city since 2015. The Ukrainian military fired at almost every district, with Proletarsky, Kuibyshevsky, Petrovsky and Kievsky districts suffering the brunt of the attacks.
The Donetsk People’s Republic has requested additional deployments of Russian forces in response to the intensive shelling.