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Fact Check: The Mariupol Maternity Ward Airstrike was not Staged
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Fact Check: The Mariupol Maternity Ward Airstrike was not Staged

Social media posts saying so echo Russian propaganda.

Khaya Himmelman
Mar 16
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(Maxar Technologies)

On March 10, a Russian airstrike hit a Ukrainian maternity hospital in Mariupol. At the time, per the Associated Press, Ukrainian officials reported the attack wounded 17 people. Earlier this week an unidentified woman* who had been evacuated from the maternity ward on a stretcher, died, along with her baby, according to AP. It had also photographed Mariana Vishegirskaya, who had given birth to her daughter, Veronika, just one day after the airstrike.

Despite this reporting, a viral Facebook post featuring an image of Vishegirskaya claims that Ukrainians staged the maternity ward airstrike: “Hollywood-esque production at Mariupol's maternity hospital?” the post reads. “The hospital was evacuated at the end of February by the Azov Battalion, which had turned it into its own base. At the time of the strikes, neither patients nor medical personnel were present. Crisis actors were used for the tragedy staged by the West. Things aren’t always what they seem.”

Russian officials are promoting the false claim as well. Business Insider reported that during a U.N. Security Council meeting last week, Vasily Nebenzya, Russian ambassador to the U.N., claimed that the pregnant women featured in pictures of the Mariupol airstrike were “crisis actors” involved in a scheme to frame Russia.

The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom promoted the rumor too. 

A now-deleted tweet from the embassy said: “The maternity house was long non-operational. Instead it was used by armed forces and radicals, namely the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.” The tweet was accompanied by pictures of the attack with a red “fake” label across the images. Twitter removed the images for violating its rules, but the Guardian took screenshots of the original tweets, which can be viewed here.

These claims are  false. 

AP journalists documented the attack and the victims, and have extensive video and photos of the airstrike, Vishegirskaya, and her baby.*  Furthermore, Vishegirskaya’s Instagram’s account, in a post dated February 28, shows her visibly pregnant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted a video of the damage in the Mariupol maternity hospital: “Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” he wrote.

Twitter avatar for @ZelenskyyUaВолодимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa
Mariupol. Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital. People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror? Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity.

March 9th 2022

49,184 Retweets130,577 Likes

The attack was also confirmed by the World Health Organization, and on March 9, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres tweeted that the attack was  “horrific.”

Twitter avatar for @antonioguterresAntónio Guterres @antonioguterres
Today's attack on a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, where maternity & children's wards are located, is horrific. Civilians are paying the highest price for a war that has nothing to do with them. This senseless violence must stop. End the bloodshed now.

March 9th 2022

2,725 Retweets7,693 Likes

Correction, March 17: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the name of the maternity ward patient who died (along with her baby) was Mariana Vishegirskaya. But the woman and baby who died after the airstrike were not identified.

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

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BWG
Mar 17·edited Mar 17

Khaya, the AP article indicates Mariana Vishegirskaya and her baby survived. It was a different woman, the one shown on a stretcher, who died along with her baby. The bodies were collected by her husband and father, and their names were never reported.

Mariana Vishegirskaya is wearing a polka dotted top, and is shown in a photo later with her baby, in the same polka dotted top. The woman on the stretcher is wearing a solid color top.

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BWG
Mar 17

Thanks for fixing this Khaya. Gotta keep it straight if you wanna stay credible.

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