Twitter has taken down two tweets by the Russian embassy in London claiming that the bombing of a Ukrainian hospital by Russian forces was staged.
This attack has killed three people in the Mariupol hospital on Wednesday.
However, the embassy’s tweets made false assertions, claiming that the hospital was not open at the time. And that the injured women seen at the scene were actors.
The hospital had been “long non-operational,” according to the embassy. However, a message on the hospital’s Facebook page from a week ago requested fuel to keep operations running.
Last week, the Associated Press and Sky News reported that Mariupol was treating bombing victims. And that the maternity unit had been moved to the basement.
The assertion that a beauty blogger was recruited to arrange photographs of a pregnant lady at the site was also called into question. Especially since the woman in issue, has been photographed heavily pregnant in Instagram posts dating back to last month.
The embassy did not make the first claims that Ukraine was behind the attack. They began trending among Russian Telegram messaging app users earlier in the day. And they were later mentioned on state television news bulletins and talk shows.
Rumors continue even after twitter takes down tweet
Another rumor is that the beauty blogger pretended to be another woman who was involved in the altercation and was photographed at the scene. A detailed look at the high-resolution photos of the second woman identified in the claims indicates that she has no similarity to the beauty blogger. Those two ladies are not identical.
Finally, claims that the hospital had been taken over by a far-right Ukrainian army brigade appeared. As of now, there is no evidence that this was the case.
These claims continue to circulate online after the removal of the tweets.
The pregnant beauty blogger’s Instagram account has also become a target for online bullies and conspiracy theorists.
Many prominent digital companies have blocked Russian broadcasters RT and Sputnik as part of their efforts to combat misinformation on their platforms. However, twitter didn’t block other accounts tied to Russian government organizations, including Vladimir Putin’s official Twitter account,.
The Russian embassy’s Twitter account is still active.