Tweet from Russian Embassy in UK about bombed Ukrainian hospital removed by Twitter

Ukrainian emergency employees work at the side of the damaged by shelling maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine on Wednesday. Picture: AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

Twitter has removed a tweet by the Russian Embassy in the UK which was branded “fake news” by the Culture Secretary.

The embassy, attributing the remark to Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, suggested a hospital attacked by Kremlin forces in the port city of Mariupol had been “long non-operational” and was being used by Ukrainian armed forces and “radicals”.

Sergei Lavrov (Sergei Ilnitsky/AP)

The tweet added that Moscow warned the UN Security Council about this three days ago.

British Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries retweeted the message and said: “This is fake news.”

The tweet was reported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and has since been removed with a note in its place saying: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules.”

(PA Graphics)

Twitter said the tweet was in violation specifically of its hateful conduct and abusive behaviour policies relating to the denial of violent events.

The Russian Embassy UK account is verified with a blue tick and has more than 150,000 followers.

Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun, deputy leader of the Holos Party, said: “It’s not just some random or unknown account on Twitter. It’s an account of an official organisation, which is the embassy of the Russian Federation.

“So that is something that Twitter can follow up upon, I believe.

Whenever a Russian official is about to open his mouth, he is about to tell a lie

“I do think that Twitter at least should take care of the official accounts, like embassies and so on.

“Or just take them down, frankly speaking that would do the job as well, it’s easier just to take them down completely, than try to, you know, follow up on every single tweet, because they’re lying to us all the time.

“Whenever a Russian official is about to open his mouth, he is about to tell a lie.

“They just constantly lie. And we should just stop listening to him (Sergei Lavrov), we should stop transmitting whatever they’re saying.”

Ms Sovsun also pointed out there is photographic evidence of women being carried out of the hospital.

“You did see the picture of the pregnant women taken out of that hospital. They were there.

“They were really pregnant, they were really hurt. And we had three people at least killed, confirmed, in that attack.”