Russia detains top doctors at Siberian hospital after nine babies die

An investigator inspects a delivery room in a maternity hospital where nine newborn babies died this month, in Novokuzhetsk, Russia, in this still image taken from a video released on January 13, 2026. Russian Investigative Committee/Handout via REUTERS

MOSCOW, ‌Jan 14 (Reuters) - Authorities in Russia have detained the chief doctor and acting head of the intensive ‌care unit at a Siberian maternity hospital after nine newborn babies died in just a ‌few days earlier this month, investigators said on Wednesday.

The deaths have provoked widespread shock and angerin Russia, where standards of medical care can vary vastly from world-class in major research hospitals to poor in some remote regional medical centres.