Three people, including a child, were killed in the children’s hospital bombing
Russian leaders have suggested that reports it bombed a maternity and children’s hospital in Ukraine are “fake news”.
The bombing of the hospital on Wednesday killed three people, including a child, Mauripol City Council said. Women were giving birth as bombs dropped from planes, with pregnant mothers and nurses being rushed out of the building on stretchers. At least 17 other women, doctors, and children were injured.
Speaking after failed talks with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov claimed Russia did not attack the hospital and dismissed criticism of the attack – branded a war crime by many – as a “pathetic outcry”.
The Russian foreign minister went on to say: “‘We are not planning to attack other countries. We didn’t attack Ukraine, either.”
He continued: “It is not the first time we see pathetic outcries concerning the so-called atrocities perpetrated by the Russian military.”
He claimed Russia was operating humanitarian corridors for the safe evacuation of civilians – all of which, other than one on Tuesday, have been unsuccessful due to continued bombings.
Lavrov also accused the west of providing Ukraine with weapons, saying: “We see how dangerously our Western colleagues, including in the European Union, are acting now, which, in violation of all its so-called principles and values, encourages the supply of deadly weapons to Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said people were trapped under the wreckage after the hospital was bombed and called the attack “a war crime” and “proof of genocide”.
That’s how #Fakenews is born. We warned in our statement back on 7 March (https://t.co/OpSeejBais) that this hospital has been turned into a military object by radicals. Very disturbing that UN spreads this information without verification #Mariupol #Mariupolhospital https://t.co/99v8avyThS pic.twitter.com/JsHgsv5YfQ
— Dmitry Polyanskiy 🇺🇳 (@Dpol_un) March 9, 2022
Writing on Twitter, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, branded the attack “fake news” and suggested the hospital had been turned into a military object by Ukranian radicals.
“Very disturbing that UN spreads this information without verification,” he added.
In a further statement, Ukraine’s president appealed to other nations for help. “Europeans, you can’t say you didn’t see what is happening, ” he said, “You have to tighten the sanctions until Russia can’t continue their savage war.”
Intense bombing had already been devastating the city of Mauripol prior to the hospital bombing, with dead bodies strewn across the streets.
Despite the horror inflicted on Ukraine, the city of Kherson remains the only city to have officially fallen to the Russians.
Currently, the cities of Mauripol, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv, and the capital Kyiv remain under siege.
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