The Ukrainian side has insisted that three people including a child were killed in a Russian strike on a maternity and children's hospital in the city of Mariupol, while Russia denied the accusation.

The Mariupol city council said Wednesday's attack on the children's and maternity hospital killed three people and injured 17.

At a press conference on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attacked what he called "pathetic shouting about so-called atrocities by the Russian armed forces."

He told reporters that the hospital building had for days been under the control of "ultra-radical" Ukrainian forces who had emptied out the doctors and patients.

The Ukrainian president soon made a response to Lavrov's remarks, saying Russia's claim that the hospital had no patients was not true.

(Cover: Ukrainian emergency employees work at the side of the damaged by shelling maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. /CFP)