Russia changes stance on hospital bombing condemned around the world

Russia on Thursday changed its position on the bombing of a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, with a mix of statements that ranged from aggressive denials to a call from the Kremlin to establish clear facts.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said three people, including a child, were killed in Wednesday’s shelling, rejecting Russian claims that there had been no patients there.

“As always, they lie with confidence”, said Zelensky, who accused the Russian government of perpetrating genocide in the war he launched two weeks ago.

In the face of worldwide condemnation, there were unusual signs of inconsistency in the response of the Russian authorities, who since the beginning of the invasion of Moscow on February 24 have adhered to the same narrative for what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

Asked just after the incident on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters that “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets.”

However, on Thursday he indicated that the Kremlin will examine the incident. “We will definitely ask our military, because you and I do not have clear information about what happened there. And it is very likely that the military will provide some information”, Peskov told the press.

Other Russian officials took a more aggressive line, dismissing the hospital bombing as fake news. “This is informational terrorism,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at what he called “pathetic cries about alleged atrocities by the Russian armed forces.”

After meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart in Turkey, Lavrov said that the hospital building had been under the control of the Ukrainian ultra-radical forces for days, who had evicted doctors and patients, a version that Zelensky rejected as a lie.