The Russian Foreign Ministry today rejected as a "gross forgery" accusations by Ukraine and the West that Moscow struck a historic monastery in the Ukrainian capital during a massive overnight attack, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier today that its troops did not strike the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra during what it described as an attack on military plants, and blamed the damage to the religious site on a US Patriot air defense missile.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine and the West of fabricating what she called "serial falsification" and "a gross deception", and said that the Russian Defense Ministry had described "what really happened".
In a statement, Zakharova also accused French President Emmanuel Macron and other European politicians of rushing to unfairly condemn Moscow for the damage to the religious site while remaining silent about the deadly Ukrainian strikes on a student dormitory and a museum in Crimea that destroyed an iconic work of art.
"There was not a hint of condolences from them for the numerous victims of the terrorist attacks on "Bankova" (the street where the presidency is located in Kiev - ed. note) on the civilian population in Russian regions, including those killed by the Ukrainian army in Starobelsk," TASS quoted Zakharova as saying. "They also said nothing about the attack, the real one, not the fabricated one, against the Defense Museum in Sevastopol", she adds.