VLADIMIR Putin has been described as a "war criminal" after a Russian airstrike on a Ukrainian hospital.

Ukrainian officials reported that the maternity and children’s hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol was severely damaged in the attack.

A total of 17 people have reportedly been wounded, the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said.

Some of those injured included women in labour, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

He accused Russia of carrying out the strike during an agreed ceasefire period that was meant to allow the evacuation of civilians from the besieged southern city.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon attacks 'shameful' Tory response to Ukrainian refugee crisis

Stewart McDonald, the SNP spokesperson for defence, said: "This is Putin’s ‘liberation’. He’s a war criminal."

Professor Stephen Gethins, the former SNP MP, added: "Straight out of the Putin playbook deployed in Chechnya, Syria etc. His regime continues to be without shame."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike as an “atrocity”, saying children were buried under the rubble, and reiterated his call to Western nations to impose a no-fly zone.

In response, Boris Johnson tweeted: “There are few things more depraved than targeting the vulnerable and defenceless.”

He said the UK was considering more support for Ukraine to defend itself against airstrikes and would hold President Vladimir Putin to account “for his terrible crimes”.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in what it calls a “special operation” in Ukraine.

Earlier Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the MPs that the Ministry of Defence was looking at whether they could supply anti-aircraft missiles as well as more anti-tank weapons.

READ MORE: Ukrainian ambassador says wife experienced ‘bureaucratic hassle’ when applying for UK visa

In Washington, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the strike was “absolutely abhorrent”, but continued to reject calls from the government in Kyiv for a no-fly zone.

“The reality is that setting up a no-fly zone would lead to a direct confrontation between Nato and Russia, and that is not what we’re looking at,” she told a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“What we’re looking at is making sure that the Ukrainians are able to defend their open country with the best possible selection of anti-tank weapons and anti-air defence systems.”

Blinken said US involvement in a no-fly zone could “prolong” the conflict, making it “even deadlier”.

“Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it, including potentially expanding it to Nato territory,” he said.

“We want to make sure it is not prolonged, to the best of our ability. Otherwise, it is going to turn even deadlier, involve more people and I think potentially even make things harder to resolve in Ukraine itself.”

It comes as Scottish Artists for Ukraine demonstrated at the Russian consulate in Edinburgh to show solidarity with Ukraine.