Moscow launched a fresh assault on the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Thursday, a day after one of its planes bombed a maternity hospital, illustrating how Russia is ramping up a violent push to take strategic towns, at a high cost for civilians.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, on Thursday said the hospital was a legitimate target because it was held by “local radical militias,” though Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters “we don’t have clear information” about the incident.
