Russia’s ambassador to the UN has been slammed for insisting its forces did not attack a theatre that was sheltering women and children in the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Armed Forces minister James Heappey condemned Vasily Nebenzya for saying the reports were “fake” and part of a “disinformation war”, adding: “I don’t know how he sleeps at night.”
Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday that Russian troops bombed a theatre in Mariupol where over 1,000 people are thought to have been sheltering from the ongoing Russian attack.
Satellite imagery shows the theatre was bombed despite the fact that the Russian word for “children” had been scrawled on the pavement in white letters in an apparent bid to thwart an attack.
Vladimir Putin’s forces have been accused of resorting to “medieval siege tactics” in order to take the city and force its residents to surrender. They are said to have completely run out of food and are having to melt snow for drinking water.
But asked about the atrocities being committed, Nebenzya said: “What kind of atrocities?”
“I’m talking about narrow trenches in Mariupol with babies’ bodies in, I’m talking about theatres in Mariupol being bombed by Russia,” the reporter says.
Nebenzya replied: “The theatre in Mariupol was not bombed by Russia.
“I do not know anything about trenches with killed babies in it.
“I have seen so many fakes. We have a disinformation war which is raging on a much greater scale than on the battlefield.
“Who wins the information war is the one who wins the war.”
Heappey told Sky News: “I don’t know how the Russian ambassador sleeps at night because he sits there, he stands there, and he says that to your correspondent, and it is clear as day what’s happening in Mariupol.
“The Russians are indiscriminately using artillery and missile strikes to destroy a city that they were unable to take militarily, and the resistance that remains in there is courageous.”
Heappey went on to say that the ultimate “culpability” for any war crimes committed in Ukraine lay with the Russian president, but that the entire Russian military chain of command would be held responsible for their actions.
“The evidence being gathered points very much towards war crimes being committed in Ukraine,” he said.
“The culpability for war crimes sits absolutely with the leader of the Russian government, the man who decided to do all of this in the first place.
“It is not just Putin who ends up being responsible for war crimes as and when the evidence is gathered and people are held to account.
“Every single person in the military chain of command cannot just hide behind the line they are only following orders.
“They too are involved in the prosecution or war crimes in Ukraine.
“This is a stain on the Russian nation.”