Claims about Russian bombardments of hospitals, schools in Ukraine are fakes and lies - Russian envoy to UN

NEW YORK, UN. Feb 28 (Interfax) - All claims about Russian bombardments of hospitals and schools in Ukraine are fakes and lies, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said.

"These are the houses destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and nationalists in Donbas that now Western media outlets are increasingly and shamelessly portraying as the consequences of our military operation in Ukraine. And today, at this very meeting, we are once again hearing lies and fakes about the indiscriminate bombardments of Ukrainian cities, hospitals and schools," Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council meeting.

The Russian army "is not threatening the civilians of Ukraine and is not firing on civilian sites," he said.

"It is the Ukrainian nationalists, who, in actual fact, have taken residents of Ukraine hostage and have been using them as a human shield, who pose a threat to them," Nebenzya said.

"There is a lot of evidence circulated by ordinary Ukrainians that, despite their protests, nationalists have been placing heavy hardware and multiple launch rocket systems in residential areas. It is a flagrant violation of humanitarian law. It must be properly condemned," he said.

"It is the same tactic that terrorists of ISIL [banned in Russia] have been using," Nebenzya said.

"All responsibility for possible consequences rests with the Maidan regime," he said.