[Richie Allen]: Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed as nonsense this morning, that the Russian army deliberately bombed a maternity ward in a hospital in Mariupol.
Ukrainian officials say that three people – including a child – were
killed in an air strike on a maternity and children’s hospital
President Volodymyr Zelensky labelled the attack on the facility a “war crime”.
Sergei Lavrov told a press conference this morning that there were no women and children in the hospital and that in fact, the facility had been commandeered by Ukrainian forces. Lavrov said Russia had informed the UN Security Council of this fact several days previously.
He claimed that “civilians are being used as “human shields” by “so-called territorial defence forces.”
He also repeated Russia’s claim that the Pentagon is using Ukrainian territory to develop pathogens that could be used to create biological weapons. Washington has denied it.
Earlier, Lavrov met with Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.
Kuleba said that the two sides have agreed to continue efforts to seek a solution to the humanitarian issues on the ground in Ukraine.
