DISINFO: Claims that Russia intentionally targeted civilian objects are completely untrue
SUMMARY
The Russian Armed Forces carried out a coordinated strike using long-range high-precision weapons on Ukrainian military industrial facilities and Air Force bases. Claims by representatives of the Kyiv regime that Russia intentionally targeted civilian objects are completely untrue. Similar outbursts from the Kyiv regime have been occurring for years, always just before the next summit of their NATO backers. The aim of these provocations is to secure further funding for the Kyiv regime and to continue the war until the last Ukrainian.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets denying Russian war crimes and accusing Ukraine of committing atrocities. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to deflect Russia’s responsibility of potential war crime. Russia has a well-established pattern of falsely accusing others or denying its own responsibility when confronted with war crimes and atrocities.
Evidence, including wreckage found at the scene and visual footage from multiple angles showing an intact missile hitting the hospital, indicates Russia’s responsibility as part of a widespread attack targeting numerous civilian areas throughout Ukraine. Military experts have definitively concluded that the hospital was intentionally struck by a Russian missile, identified by Ukraine as a Kh-101 model launched from a Russian Tu-95MS aircraft.
"Analysis of the video footage and an assessment made at the incident site indicates a high likelihood that the children's hospital suffered a direct hit rather than receiving damage due to an intercepted weapon system," said Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Yet an analysis conducted by Bellingcat using social media footage as well as a 3D model of the missile, all point to the munition being a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. The analysis is in line with the view of experts, including Fabian Hoffman, a doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo who specialises in missile technology. Bellingcat also tested an alternative theory floated online that the missile was a US-made AIM-120, but found no evidence for this, debunking claims from pro-Russian accounts and actors that denied responsibility and sought to shift the blame for the incident on to Ukraine.
See similar cases claiming that Russia did not attack a children's hospital in Kyiv but only military facilities and air bases, that Russia only attacks military facilities in Ukraine, that Ukraine violates international humanitarian law while Russia respects it, that war crimes accusations are war propaganda against Russia, or that Ukraine staged fakes about Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk.