WASHINGTON, July 9. /TASS/. Kiev’s Western patrons are seemingly seeking to use allegations that Russia attacked a hospital in Kiev as a pretext for escalating the Ukraine conflict further, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said on Monday.

The Russian envoy dismissed the hysteria being whipped up in Washington over an attack on a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital as blatant anti-Russian propaganda. "Without any understanding of what is happening, American officials and local observers are shamelessly using the deadly attack [to make accusations] against our country," the Russian diplomatic mission quoted Antonov as saying in comments on its Telegram channel in the wake of US allegations that Russian forces deliberately attacked the Okhmatdet hospital.

"The United States hypocritically hushed up the fact that the projectile that hit civilian infrastructure was a Ukrainian air defense missile. This is not the first time we have seen the Kiev regime blatantly shifting the blame for its own deadly crimes onto Russia," he added.

The ambassador called on the West to stop supplying Ukraine with weapons being used to kill civilians in Russia and Ukraine. "Kiev’s Western patrons seem to view the attack on the hospital that was delivered ahead of a NATO summit in Washington as a `perfect rationale’ to escalate the conflict and continue the war to the last Ukrainian," he said. Washington will host the North Atlantic Alliance’s summit on July 9-11.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Russian Armed Forces carried out a high-precision strike on Ukrainian defense facilities and air bases in response to Kiev’s attempts to attack energy facilities inside Russia, hitting all designated targets. Russia’s top brass dismissed as untrue Ukrainian allegations that a Russian missile strike deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure as they said images and footage from the site of the attack showed a Ukrainian air defense missile crashing into the health facility. The ministry emphasized that "the Kiev regime has been throwing such tantrums for years, each time ahead of a get-together (summit) of its NATO sponsors."

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will hold a meeting on Ukraine later on Tuesday, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky announced on July 8. At the meeting, Russia will share evidence refuting the Ukrainian version of the attack on Kiev, he added.