Russian army says Mariupol hospital attack ‘staged’ by Ukraine

By AFP 10 March 2022, 7:17 pm

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Ukrainian emergency employees and volunteers carry an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital that was damaged by shelling in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. She later died, and her baby was stillborn. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

MOSCOW — The Russian army claims an attack on a children’s hospital in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol — which killed three including a child, and caused global outrage — was a “staged provocation” by Ukraine.

“The Russian aviation carried out absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground in the Mariupol area,” Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov says.

“The airstrike that allegedly took place is a completely staged provocation to maintain anti-Russian hype for a Western audience,” he says.