The Russian Defense Ministry is outraged by the way the International Committee of the Red Cross reacted to the "cold-blooded murder" of Russian doctors in Aleppo, the ministry’s spokesman said.

"This is not just a violation of international law by the ‘sides of the conflict,’ as the ICRC statement reads, it is a pre-planned, cold-blooded murder of doctors by militants," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, adding that statements on such tragedies expose the true nature of those who make them.

"The ICRC, whose president visited the Russian Defense Ministry nearly a week ago, knows perfectly well how Russia helps civilians in Aleppo," he added.

According to the spokesman, an even greater tragedy was averted by pure coincidence, because buses delivering dozens of Syrian children and their mothers to the hospital arrived on site with a delay.

Earlier on Monday the Russian Defense Ministry said one Russian medical worker had been killed and two others injured when "opposition" militants shelled a Russian mobile hospital. The facility came under an artillery attack between 12:21 and 12:30 Moscow time, when the examination of local patients was in progress.

One woman died when a mortar shell hit the hospital’s emergency ward, another died of injuries later. Doctors are still trying to save the third victim.

Russian military medics from the Defense Ministry’s special purpose unit opened the hospital in Syria’s Aleppo to patients when Syrian government forces regained part of the city on Monday morning.