Russia denies hospital strike; cease-fire talks fail

Russian forces continued to bombard the Ukrainian city Mariupol Thursday amid international outrage over the bombing of a children’s hospital there, while a massive convoy that has been stalled for over a week outside Kyiv appeared to split up into surrounding towns and forests.

Civilians in the port city of Mariupol are facing increasingly dire conditions with scarce food, fuel and electricity. Bodies are being buried in mass graves.

The Kremlin displayed harried confusion in its response to criticism Thursday, at times completely denying the Mariupol hospital bombing and at other moments alleging an elaborate propaganda ploy by the West.

Photos and video of the bombing’s aftermath clearly show severely injuried people – including a pregnant woman – being taken by stretcher from the rubble.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, has said the building was a hospital and called the attack an “atrocity.”

The hospital complex in Mariupol bombed Wednesday resulted in at least three deaths, including one child, Ukraine authorities say. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the claim Thursday, saying the hospital had been emptied of patients and was being used as an extremist base.

The attack was condemned internationally and branded a “war crime” by Ukrainian and Western leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron called it “a shameful and immoral act of war.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it was “horrific” and “barbaric.”

“This is not the first time when we see pathetic cries about so-called atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces,” Lavrov said. “Our delegation presented facts at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council proving that the maternity hospital had long been seized by fighters of the Azov battalion and other radicals. They kicked all patients, all nurses, and all service personnel out.”

Later, Russia denied responsibility entirely and claimed the attack was staged to make the Kremlin look bad. Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov denied the strike. He claimed that the two explosions that ravaged the building were caused by explosive devices planted nearby in what he described as a “staged provocation to incite anti-Russian agitation in the West.”

Meanwhile, the highest-level talks yet failed to reach agreement on a humanitarian cease-fire aimed at protecting Ukraine cities battered by fierce Russian assaults.

In Poland, Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated the U.S. commitment to NATO and defense of its members is “ironclad.” Harris, during a joint news conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda, said America is deeply appreciative of Poland’s efforts to aid refugees fleeing the carnage in Ukraine.

“This is a moment that requires severe and swift consequences for Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Harris said. “What is at stake, this very moment, are some of the guiding principles around the NATO alliance.”

The meeting came after the Biden administration rejected a plan from Poland that would involve U.S. involvement in providing fighter jets to Ukraine, a decision drawing questions from some Republican senators. U.S. defense officials also have distanced themselves from Ukraine requests for a NATO-backed no-fly zone over the country.

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In Turkey, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov met, the most pressing issue the southern port of Mariupol. The city has been rocked by two weeks of unrelenting bombardment leaving inhabitants struggling to obtain, food, water, shelter and other basic necessities. Multiple rounds of talks aimed at protecting Ukraine’s civilians have also failed to make headway toward peace.

Latest developments:

►In addition to the more than 2.3 million people who have fled the war in Ukraine, an estimated 1.9 million people are displaced within the country, according to the U.N.

►Russian President Vladimir Putin shrugged off sanctions from the West, saying they are nothing new for Russians. ″Just as we overcame these difficulties in the previous years, we will overcome them now,” he said at a televised meeting of government officials. He acknowledged the sanctions create “certain challenges.”

►Former Vice President Mike Pence and wife Karen visited Thursday with Ukraine refugees at the Korczowa border crossing in Poland. “The impact of the Russian invasion on these families is heartbreaking and the need for support is great,” Pence said on Twitter.

►The U.N. refugee agency says more than 2.3 million Ukraines have fled the country, over 1.4 million of them through Poland. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Thursday that about 100,000 people have fled over the last two days through evacuation corridors.

►A Ukrainian man learned his family was killed through graphic images circulating on Twitter. Serhiy Perebyinis told The New York Times he first recognized the luggage in the photo where the lifeless bodies of his wife and two children were lying on the ground after being hit by shrapnel from a Russian mortar shelling Sunday.

Zelenskyy worries Russia could use chemical or bio weapons in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied Russia’s accusation that Ukraine is preparing to attack with chemical or biological weapons, and he said the accusation itself was a bad sign.

“That worries me very much because we have often been convinced that if you want to know Russia’s plans, they are what Russia accuses others of,” he said in his nightly address to the nation.

Russia said it uncovered plans to create secret laboratories in Ukraine to produce biological weapons.

“I am a reasonable person. The president of a reasonable country and reasonable people. I am the father of two children,” Zelenskyy said. “And no chemical or any other weapon of mass destruction has been developed on my land. The whole world knows this.”

His comments came as the U.S. and other Western leaders expressed similar concerns that Russia was hinting as its possible next move in using such weapons in the war in Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined others Thursday in spreading that warning and accused the Kremlin of a “cynical, barbaric” attempt to justify such a move.

Johnson said the Kremlin is preparing a “fake story” that chemical weapons are being stored by their opponents or by the Americans as a pretext for deploying the weapons themselves.

“The stuff which you are hearing about chemical weapons is straight out of their playbook,” he told Sky News on Thursday. “You have seen it in Syria, you saw it even in the U.K. I just note that that is what they are already doing. It is a cynical, barbaric government I’m afraid.”

Nuclear research facility hit by Russian shelling

Russian forces shelled a nuclear research institute in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city on Thursday, setting buildings ablaze, said Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry.

A shell hit a building where there is equipment that could release radiation if it were damaged, Gerashchenko said. According to the president’s office, there has been no change in the background radiation.

The shelling caused a fire, but firefighters were able to put it out.

Russian forces have already taken over two nuclear power plants in Ukraine, raising concerns about the security of nuclear facilities in the country.

State Department vows to hold Russians responsible for war crimes

The United States has seen “very credible reports” of deliberate attacks by Russians on Ukrainian civilians that would qualify as a war crime under international law, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday.

That could include the recent assault on the maternity and children’s hospital complex as well as strikes on schools, residential buildings, public buses and ambulances, he said. Price said the U.S. will do everything possible to hold accountable every Russian political leader, military commander and service member who participates in a war crime.

“Criminal prosecutions are one possibility,” he said.

The U.S. has the ability to conduct its own in-depth investigations and will support the appropriate international investigations, Price said. The International Criminal Court announced last week it’s investigating possible war crimes by Russia in Ukraine. Price was also pushed on the administration’s rejection of Poland’s offer to transfer Soviet-era fighter planes to the U.S., which could then give the planes to Ukraine.

Price repeated the administration’s argument that having the planes pass through U.S. hands would risk escalating the war. Asked if the U.S. would still support the original goal of having Poland transfer its planes directly to Ukraine, Price said that’s up to Poland.