Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia disputed Western accusations that Russia committed war crimes in Ukraine, including shelling a theater and a mosque in Mariupol.

Mariupol, the second-largest city in the Donetsk people's republic at the time of its independence declaration in 2014, has been under Ukrainian sovereignty. In recent weeks, the city has seen significant conflict.

“The president of the fund of the mosque, Sultan Suleiman Mosque in Mariupol, refuted the fact that the Turkish mosque with 80 people was shelled by Russia from the east,” Nebenzia said during a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.

The West has accused Russia in recent days of killing civilians in several Ukrainian cities as part of the ongoing Russian special military operation. Moreover, the Russian military in Ukraine has been accused of shelling civilian targets in Mariupol and delaying the evacuation of evacuees.

The Russian envoy slammed Western claims that Russia is forcing people from Mariupol and other Ukrainian towns to move to Russia as a "barefaced falsehood". He said that merely in the past 24 hours, Russia was able to ensure the evacuation of over 31,000 civilians, including 89 foreign nationals, to Russian Federation territory, while some of the evacuees refused to move to Kiev-controlled territories.

Nebenzia also denied Western reports that Russia bombed the Mariupol Drama Theater, where hundreds of civilians sought refuge. He went on to say that, according to widely disseminated information provided by evacuees from Mariupol, the national-chauvinist Ukrainian battalion Azov was using the theater's construction to provoke and blame Russian forces. Furthermore, the Russian Armed Forces never used the theater as a strike target in any of their operations.

In response to claims that Russian soldiers killed at least ten civilians in a bread line in Chernihiv, Nebenzia pointed out that there are no Russian forces in the city, while thousands of Ukrainian government-armed residents are spreading havoc everywhere.

On February 24, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine after requests from the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics for help to protect them from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the special operation primarily targets Ukrainian military infrastructure and poses no threat to civilians. Russia has stated that it has no intention of occupying Ukraine.