Russian foreign minister condemns ‘pathetic’ outcry over maternity hospital attack
Russia’s foreign minister has dismissed Ukraine and the West’s outpouring of anger over the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol as propaganda.
Sergei Lavrov said it was “not the first time we’ve seen pathetic outcries concerning the so-called atrocities perpetrated by the Russian military,” according to a BBC translator, before he condemned Western media for being too “emotional”.
The staunch ally of Vladimir Putin also used a press conference in Turkey, where he had been holding talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytryo Kuleba, to claim there were no patients at the hospital when the assault took place. This is despite the city’s deputy mayor saying earlier that at last three people had died, including a six-year-old child, and 17 others were injured.
Meanwhile, the UK’s armed forces minister James Heappey described the overnight attack in southern Ukraine as a “war crime”. Asked if Britain wanted the latest civilian attack to be investigated as such, Mr Heappey told Sky News: “Yes, absolutely... I mean it is.”
