Kremlin defends bombing hospital [View all]
Source: USA Today
The Kremlin defended its bombing of a Ukraine hospital Thursday while the highest-level talks yet failed to reach agreement on a humanitarian cease-fire aimed at protecting Ukraine cities battered by fierce Russian assaults.
-snip-
A hospital complex in Mariupol bombed Wednesday resulted in at least three deaths, including one child, Ukraine authorities say. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the claim Thursday, saying the hospital had been emptied of patients and was being used as an extremist base.
"This is not the first time when we see pathetic cries about so-called atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces," Lavrov said. "Our delegation presented facts at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council proving that the maternity hospital had long been seized by fighters of the Azov battalion and other radicals. They kicked all patients, all nurses, and all service personnel out."
Later, Russia denied responsibility entirely and claimed the attack was staged to make the Kremlin look bad. Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov denied the strike. He claimed that the two explosions that ravaged the building were caused by explosive devices planted nearby in what he described as a “staged provocation to incite anti-Russian agitation in the West.”
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukrainians-flee-russian-occupied-towns-080552727.html
= new reply since forum marked as read