The reporter of the AP denied the statements of Mariupol resident who was interviewed by Russians

The AP correspondent Mstyslav Chernov, who was in Mariupol at the moment of the Russian airstrike on the maternity home, told his version of events on March 9. His assertions contradict the statements of the city resident Marianna Vyshemyrska, who earlier in an interview with Russian propagandists said that there were no airstrikes on Mariupol.

In the interview, from which it’s impossible to figure out Vyshemyrska’s location, she said that on March 9 she’d heard two explosions. After that, women from the maternity home were evacuated to the cellar. There they agreed that it was not the airstrike, but the artillery shelling. The same information allegedly confirmed people in the street.
However, the Associated Press provides evidence that it was an airstrike. It is based on the testimonies of witnesses, a soldier and a policeman, who have heard the sound of a plane before the explosion; and the existence of a crater near the hospital. On that day, the publisher released a video from the place where everything happened, which was recorded by the reporter Mstyslav Chernov.

At the moment of the explosion, Chernov and his colleague Yevgen Malolietka were on the other side of Mariupol. They clearly heard the sound of a plane and later two explosions. Reporters went to the 12th floor of a neighboring building, where they shot two big wisps of smoke toward the hospital. Approximately 25 minutes later they were already there. “On that day, we were hearing the sounds of a plane and air attacks almost every 10-15 minutes over the whole city; this one was closer to us because we heard it very well.”

Vyshemyrska in her interview said that she didn’t agree to be shot by the journalists of the AP, but recordings of communication with her that day contradict it. When Chernov asked her in the street, “How are you?”, the girl answered, “Everything’s good. I feel good.” Then someone off-camera says, “Let’s go,” she answers, “Yes, let’s go, please.” During the conversation, Vyshemyrska knew that she was being recorded; however, she didn’t indicate that she didn’t want to be in the frame, the publisher states.

The correspondents of the AP also say that neither Marianna, nor her husband refused to be shot or interviewed, when they were talking with the couple on March 11, the next day after the childbirth of the girl. At that time, Vyshemyrska told reporters what she had seen and heard in the hospital. “I didn’t see firsthand where it flew from, what exactly and in which direction. We don’t know. There are a lot of rumours but actually we can’t say anything,” she commented to the AP.

On March 9, the Ukrainian government informed that the Russian military aviation bombed the maternity home in Mariupol. The Russian authorities and state media repeatedly called the bombardment of this medical institution fake. Among the versions there were theories that Marianna Vyshemyrska is a made up actress or the building was allegedly the base of Ukrainian soldiers.