'Clumsily Fabricated Fake': Russian Envoy Slams UN's Latest Syria Report

Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations Office in Geneva Alexey Borodavkin on Saturday blasted the United Nations for fabricating the facts regarding Moscow's actions in Syria and Damascus's use of chemical weapons.

GENEVA (Sputnik) — A part of the report issued by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which contains accusations against Russia and allegations on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, is a "politically biased" fabrication, Borodavkin told reporters.

The commission accused the Syrian government on Wednesday of using chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun in April in a report. It also accused Damascus and the Russian military of targeting hospitals and medical personnel in the war-torn country. Responding to the report, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that Damascus did not have chemical weapons, had never used them and would never do it.

"The part of the report concerning Russia and the use of the chemical weapons by the Syrian armed forces is an example of a politically biased fake, which is in addition clumsily fabricated," Borodavkin told reporters.

The permanent representative added that Moscow should not pay attention to such accusations.

"Some time ago, it became fashionable in political and diplomatic circles to spread Russophobic lies. But the situation has been gradually changing. Even in places where such fabrications are still in demand, their political price is rapidly falling," Borodavkin added.

On April 4, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces announced that several dozen people had been killed in a suspected chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun in Syria's province of Idlib. Four days later, the United States fired missiles at a Syrian government airbase in Idlib in response to the alleged attack, which the White House blamed Damascus for, albeit without providing evidence.

Syrian authorities have refuted any involvement in the incident, saying that the complete elimination of the Syrian government's stockpile of chemical weapons was confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in January 2016. Russia considers US claims of having evidence that Damascus used chemical weapons in Khan Sheikhoun unfounded.