By Emma Farge
GENEVA - A senior Russian diplomat blamed Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday for a humanitarian catastrophe in the city of Kharkiv, accusing the Ukrainian army of blocking humanitarian corridors and alleging that a far-right militia had set up in a school.
He did not provide evidence for his assertions, which were rejected by Kharkiv's mayor as "distortions".
The city of about 1.5 million people situated 25 km (15 miles) from the Russian border, has been hammered by Russian air and rocket strikes since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, reducing some neighbourhoods to rubble.
Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected as "fakes" emerging evidence of civilian killings in a town near Kyiv retaken from Russian forces.
Ukraine's defence ministry said on Monday Russia was preparing to launch a fresh assault in eastern Ukraine to try to take Kharkiv, the country's second largest city, and encircle the heavily fortified eastern frontline.
Alexander Alimov, Russia's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, delivered his comments at a U.N. event after Kharkiv's mayor described damage to the city.
Many of the other mayors attending the forum walked out during Alimov's speech.
"Due to the criminal policy of the Kyiv authorities a real humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in the city," Alimov said. "Kharkiv residents are held hostage by radicals and cannot leave the humanitarian corridors," he added, saying that 6,500 foreign nationals from 19 countries were among the "hostages".
In the same speech, he said that the far-right Azov battalion had set up in a Kharkiv school and that civilians were being denied hospital care in favour of soldiers. Alimov also alleged that the Ukrainian army was placing heavy military equipment in residential areas.
"I am stunned by what I heard because those facts that were just listed are distortions," Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Earlier in the same meeting, Terekhov said that 1,600 Kharkiv buildings had been destroyed by Russian weaponry, including dozens of schools, kindergartens and hospitals.
Around 30% of the residents have left while others are forced to squat in the ruins of their homes, Terekhov said.
"Every day we find new levels of destruction. Believe you me, you cannot look at this damage without tears in your eyes and a deep pain in your heart."