MOSCOW 

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Friday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) mined a hospital in Dnipro to destroy it and put place responsibility on Russia.

"The detonation of the mined hospital building is planned to be carried out during any flight of the Russian aviation over Dnepropetrovsk," spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a news conference in Moscow, using the Russian name for the city.

Konashenkov said Western media were invited to shoot "the staged provocation."

He emphasized that Russia does not have plans to strike any building in Dnipro before he accused the Ukrainian military of striking residential areas in Melitopol with cluster munition and said the attack was repelled by Russian air defense systems.

"The shelling of the city was carried out from the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is completely controlled by Ukrainian nationalist units. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation detected the launch of Ukrainian ballistic missiles and destroyed them with two Iskander missiles," he said.

Melitopol, which is under Russia's control, "continues living a normal life," according to Konashenkov

He noted new strikes at Ukraine military infrastructure objects -- a parking lot of Ukrainian fighter jets in Lviv was hit with high-precision weapons, as well as ammunition and military technics depots in the suburbs of Nikolayev and Voznesensk.

During the last day, one unmanned aerial vehicle and 54 military facilities were hit by aviation, including three command posts, four multiple rocket launchers, four ammunition depots and 44 places of accumulation of military equipment, he noted.

"In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 184 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,412 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 142 multiple rocket launchers, 542 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 1,211 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed," he said.

He also said 90% of the Luhansk region fell under the control of Russian armed forces and rebel forces of Ukraine's breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia ready to provide safe passage to Ukraine's military in Mariupol

In a separate statement, the head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, said the Russian military intercepted negotiations between the Ukrainian military in the surrounded city of Mariupol and the General Staff in Kyiv.

Kyiv urged troops "to sacrifice themselves for the victory" and promised they will get the status of "martyrs of Mariupol," according to Mizintsev.

He said Kyiv also said 200,000 civilians in Mariupol can serve as a human shield.

The military chief said Moscow officially contacted Kyiv authorities about opening humanitarian corridors but that proposal was rejected.

"We guaranteed the life of nationalists who have laid down their weapons and pledged to provide a humanitarian corridor for their exit to the territories controlled by Kyiv. In response, we received a categorical refusal from high officials in Kyiv," he said.

Mizintsev said despite claims by Ukraine that residents do not want to leave the city in the direction of Russia, many have chosen that direction.

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians and over 6,000 foreigners are currently locked in dozens of big cities, including the capital of Kyiv, in Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, he said.

"Nationalists forcibly detain 6,921 foreign citizens from 23 countries, as well as the crews of seventy foreign vessels blocked in the seaports of Ukraine," he said.

On Friday, 181 foreign citizens were evacuated without the participation of Ukraine, he said, including 32 Nigerians, 23 Uzbeks, 17 Kazakhs, 7 Lebanese, 6 Sri Lankans, four Pakistanis, one Serb, one Tunisian and 90 Ukrainians.