Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman answers urgent call during press briefing

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova answered a call during a briefing on November 21 and was asked "not to comment at all" on "the ballistic missile strike on Yuzhmash." The voice of the person who called Zakharova could be heard as the microphone in which Zakharova was speaking was still on during the phone call.

It remains unknown who called Zakharova.

"Prior to the briefing, there were questions in connection with contradictory materials on the Internet. I consulted experts whether this was our topic, the answer came during the briefing — the Foreign Ministry does not comment, so there is no intrigue," Zakharova later said, TASS reports.

Russia may have carried out its first ICBM missile attack on Ukraine by launching an RS-26 ballistic missile. The strike was presumably carried out on one of the industrial enterprises in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Ukrainian sources said that the Russian Armed Forces struck the Yuzhmash plant in Dnepropetrovsk.

Details

Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova (born 24 December 1975) is a Russian politician who serves as the director of the information and press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. She has been the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation since 2015. She has a degree of Candidate in Historical Sciences, the Russian equivalent of a PhD.