“We really regret that the council has been drawn into this dirty propaganda campaign of Kiev…,” Nebenzia said in the UN Security Council during a meeting on Ukraine, which was requested by the Western states.
Tragedies such as with the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kiev could have been avoided if Ukraine did not deploy air defenses in residential neighborhoods in violation of international humanitarian law, he added.
"However, its Western sponsors prefer to look away regarding that important fact," Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that Ukrainian claims about a deliberate Russian strike on civilian targets in Ukraine do not correspond to reality. Footage from Kiev shows that the damage to the children's hospital was caused by a Ukrainian air-defense missile launched from a system in the city, the ministry said.
Commenting on the tragedy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Ukraine is using tragedies as PR stunts during international events, like the upcoming participation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the NATO summit.
"I believe that there are no coincidences in this regard. Of course, these are all such PR stunts, and PR stunts on blood. Obviously, an air defense missile was improperly used and it hit this children's hospital. It is indeed a tragedy, but it is being deliberately used to create an image that would probably go together with Zelensky's attendance at the NATO summit," Peskov told a Rossiya 1 reporter.
The spokesman also called Kiev’s methodology of making tragedies coincide with important international events "impure."