US and EU politicians, who authorised strikes on Syria over false evidence, will try to avoid responsibility, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said.

"Over the past few years, the Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly stressed that sooner or later, the truth about these fabrications of Western countries would make its way to the light. And many current high-level policymakers in the United States and Europe, who then called for the 'protection of peaceful Syrians from the regime's terrible chemical attacks' and authorised missile and air strikes on Syria, will try to 'forget' this issue to avoid moral, political and criminal responsibility", Konashenkov said in a statement.

Speaking about the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), he said that granting a mandate to attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks in Syria to the OPCW allows western states to attack any country undesirable for them on the basis of fabricated evidence. 

He also argued that if taking into account "the scale of consequences and the number of acting high-ranking western politicians and security services in the United States, (especially) the United Kingdom and other western countries, involved in these falsifications, all that is left to do is wish that BCC producer Riam Dalati avoids persecution and, even more so, provocations from those whose interests he ran counter to".

The spokesman's comments come after on Wednesday, BBC producer Riam Dalati tweeted that he could "prove without a doubt" that the Douma hospital footage had been staged and that no one had died in the hospital. According to him, the attack did take place but without the use of sarin gas and that the nature of any chemical used would have to be verified by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Prior to that, the RT broadcaster reported that Dalati had already expressed his skepticism about the Douma hospital video in a Twitter post. However, the journalist later deleted his tweet, citing a breach of editorial policy.

Sputnik had moreover interviewed Douma residents who said that they couldn't confirm that the attack had taken place there. They said they knew nothing about it and were not aware of anybody having been affected by toxic chemicals.

In early April 2018, the White Helmets group published a video that showed local residents, both adults and children, being treated at a hospital after an alleged chemical attack in Syria's Douma.