Russian forces attack kindergarten, orphanage, claims Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba Friday alleged that Russian forces have attacked a kindergarten and an orphanage. "Today’s Russian attacks on a kindergarten and an orphanage are war crimes and violations of the Rome Statute. Together with the General Prosecutor’s Office we are collecting this and other facts, which we will immediately send to the Hague. Responsibility is inevitable," Kuleba tweeted.

Speaking in Moscow, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted that the military was only attacking legitimate targets. “They are incapacitating military infrastructure, air defence targets, military airfields and [the] air force of Ukraine,” she said, according to an English translation by Russian state media Ruptly.“There is no threat to the civilian population intended. ”Russia’s defence ministry Friday said its forces had captured the strategic Hostomel aerodrome, just 7 km (4 miles) northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, and landed paratroops in the area. More than 200 people were eliminated from the Ukraine special units in the operation, it added. The ministry claimed the Russian military had blocked access to Kyiv from the west, and separatist forces in east Ukraine had attacked Ukrainian army positions with Russian army support. The Russian military said that it will not strike residential areas of Kyiv.