Denies Bombing Cities In Ukraine, Russia: Unlike The US And NATO In Yugoslavia, Iraq Or Afghanistan

JAKARTA - Russian authorities have again denied carrying out the bombing of Ukraine, not targeting civilians, comparing with what the United States and NATO have been doing, while the death toll from attacks continues to grow.

The more than month-long invasion, the largest in a Western country since World War Two, has caused more than 3.8 million people to flee abroad, left thousands dead or injured, and brought Russia's economic isolation, citing Reuters March 29.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said his side in special military operations in Ukraine had not bombed any cities in Ukraine since last month's invasion.

Furthermore, he compared to what the United States and NATO did in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, destroying residential neighborhoods with people.

"We are not bombing civilian cities and facilities like the US and NATO did in Yugoslavia, Iraq or Afghanistan, ruthlessly destroying residential neighborhoods with thousands of people," he said at a meeting with Noureddine Makri, head of Algeria's Directorate General of Documentation and Documentation.

Patrushev explained that as part of the special military operation, "strikes, including high-precision weapons, were carried out against the main fortifications, airfields, weapons storage areas and accumulated military equipment of the Ukrainian army."

Previously reported, a number of cities in Ukraine claimed to have experienced bombing by Russia, for example Mariupol, a strategic city that was besieged by Russia in its attempt to control the city.

Nearly 5,000 people, including about 210 children, have died in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol since Russian forces surrounded it, the mayor's spokesman said Monday.

It was not immediately clear how Mayor Vadym Boichenko calculated the toll, during a month of Russian bombings that have devastated the city, trapping tens of thousands of residents without electricity and with few supplies.

Boichenko's office said 90 percent of Mariupol's buildings had been damaged and 40 percent destroyed, including hospitals, schools, kindergartens and factories.

About 140,000 people had fled the city on the Sea of Azov before the Russian siege began and 150,000 have left since, leaving 170,000 still there, according to figures, which Reuterst could not immediately verify.

Boichenko, who is no longer in Mariupol, said on national television early Monday that about 160,000 civilians were still trapped in the city.

"People are outside the line of humanitarian disaster. We have to evacuate Mariupol completely," he said.

Mariupol is widely seen as a strategic gift, as capturing it could allow Russia to create a land bridge between Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and two separatist pockets in eastern Ukraine.