Russia asserted Thursday that the claim from Ukraine that Moscow forces were responsible for the bombing of a maternity hospital in the port city of Mariupol was “fake news.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia shared Polyanskiy’s statement on its Twitter page.
The March 7 statement was delivered by Russian Representative Vassily Nebenzia at the U.N. Security Council.
“Ukrainian radicals show their true face more distinctly by the day,” Nebenzia said. “Locals reports [sic] that Ukraine’s Armed Forces kicked out personnel of natal hospital #1 of the city of Mariupol and set up a firing site within the facility.”
Russia has also previously denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure as part of its campaign in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian aircraft bombed the children’s hospital on Wednesday, after which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of carrying out genocide.
After the strike, the Mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, called for a no-fly zone to be imposed over Ukraine.
“Today I am asking the global community for help. Close the sky over Ukraine. Our will has not been broken, we will fight to the end,” Boichenko said in a video message posted to Telegram. ”We have motivated soldiers and officers who defend our homeland. But today we need support.”
Hours before the hospital was hit, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “in Mariupol, the Ukrainian national battalions, having expelled the staff and patients from the maternity hospital, equipped combat positions in it.”
The claim that Russia attacked the hospital could not be independently verified by The Epoch Times. Russia’s claims that Ukrainian forces took over the hospital also cannot be independently verified.
Blinken “reiterated the United States’ steadfast support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to the statement.