Ukraine: Russian officials present wildly inconsistent stances on Mariupol hospital bombing
This image taken from video provided by the Mariupol City Council shows the aftermath of Mariupol Hospital after the attack. Picture: PA
Russia appears to have shifted its stance over the bombing of a maternity hospital in the southern port city of Mariupol with a mix of statements veering between aggressive denials and a call to establish clear facts about the shelling.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said three people, including one child, were killed in the bombing on Wednesday.
A further 17 were injured.
"Like always, they lie confidently," President Zelenskyy said following the conclusion of high-level talks between Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in Turkey on Thursday afternoon.
In the face of international condemnation, there were rare signs of inconsistency in the response from Russian officials.
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin would be looking into the incident.
"We will definitely ask our military, because you and I don't have clear information about what happened there," he said.
"And the military are very likely to provide some information."
Other Russian officials took a more aggressive line, rejecting the hospital bombing as "fake news."
"This is information terrorism," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Russia's defence ministry later denied having bombed the hospital. Instead, it accused Ukraine of staging the incident.
"Russian aviation carried out absolutely no strikes on ground targets in the area," spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
"The alleged airstrike was completely a staged provocation... that can deceive the Western public but not an expert."
At his own press conference following the talks in Turkey, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov attacked what he called "pathetic shouting about so-called atrocities by the Russian armed forces".
Mr Lavrov claimed that hospital building had for days been under the control of "ultra-radical" members of the Ukrainian armed forces - a remark condemned as a complete lie by President Zelenskyy and members of his government.
Some Ukrainian officials have called the medical facility attacked on Wednesday a children’s hospital, while others have called it a maternity unit. It was not clear if perhaps it hosted both services.
Reports on the ground say the ground shook more than a mile away when the series of blasts hit, with explosions blowing out windows and all but completely leveling one building.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it has confirmed 18 attacks on medical facilities since the Russian invasion began 15 days ago.
Police and soldiers rushed to the scene to evacuate victims, carrying a bleeding woman with a swollen belly on a stretcher past burning and mangled cars.
Another woman wailed as she clutched her child. In the courtyard, a blast crater extended at least two floors deep.
“Today Russia committed a huge crime,” said Volodymir Nikulin, a top regional police official, standing in the ruins.
"It is a war crime without any justification."
Elsewhere in Zhytomyr, a city of 260,000 to the west of Kyiv, bombs fell on two hospitals, one of them a children’s hospital, mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn said on Facebook. He said there were no injuries.
Two weeks into Russia’s assault on Ukraine, its military is struggling more than expected, but its President Vladimir Putin’s invading force of more than 150,000 troops retains possibly insurmountable advantages in firepower as it bears down on key cities.
Authorities announced new cease-fires to allow thousands of civilians to escape bombarded towns. Whether these ceasefires hold is another matter.
Previous attempts to establish safe evacuation corridors over the past few days largely failed because of what the Ukrainians said were Russian attacks.
International Red Cross spokesman Jason Straziuso said safe passage corridors are welcome but have to be well planned, with details agreed on by all sides including the right to bring in food, clean water, medical supplies and other necessities.
Such guarantees are vital for places like Mariupol, a city of 430,000 on the Sea of Azov, where Mr Zelenskyy’s office said about 1,200 people have died during the nine-day siege.
“We haven’t been able to resupply our teams in recent days in Mariupol, for example,” Mr Straziuso said.
Local authorities hurried to bury the dead from the past two weeks of fighting in a mass grave in Mariupol.
Workers dug a trench some 25 metres long at one of the city’s old cemeteries and made the sign of the cross as they pushed in bodies wrapped in carpets or bags.
Nationwide, thousands are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, since Mr Putin’s forces invaded.
The UN also estimates more than 2.3m people have fled the country.
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