Russian strike on Sloviansk destroys early 20th-century hospital building

Russian forces on 4 November struck the centre of Sloviansk, a city in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, destroying the old, disused hospital building. The structure is an early 20th-century landmark with the status of an architectural monument of local significance. The strike was reported by Vadym Liakh, head of the Sloviansk City Military Administration.

Liakh said other hospital buildings and houses were also damaged. He noted that people's lives had been saved in the building since the very start of the 20th century.

A repeated attack

This is not the first time the building has been hit. Russian forces struck it on 21 September, when the surgery building of City Clinical Hospital No. 1 was damaged. That building also housed the anaesthesiology and intensive care unit.

History of the building

The official list of notable buildings of Donetsk Oblast gives the date as 1901. However, local historian Ihor Hulko said research shows the new hospital opened in February 1909, according to the Slovianski Vidomosti newspaper.

The red-brick building had a distinctive architectural style, with arched windows, columns and detailed decorative brickwork. It survived both the First and Second World Wars. Its construction is linked to Avksentii Shnurkov, a Sloviansk businessman and philanthropist of the early 20th century.

During the Soviet era and afterwards, it served as the surgery department of the city hospital. In 2016 it became the Sloviansk City Clinical Hospital, and in 2018 it was converted into a municipal non-profit facility. The newspaper added that some local history publications say the old building was used as a military hospital during the Second World War, and that the surgery department stayed in the old building after the hospital was reorganised.