Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Ukrainian medical facilities, striking at hospitals, ambulances, medics, patients and even newborns — with at least 34 assaults independently documented by the The Associated Press
The War Crimes Watch Ukraine project launched by AP and Frontline includes details of apparent targeted attacks as well as indiscriminate destruction of civilian buildings and infrastructure. The AP/Frontline online database will continue to be updated as long as the conflict lasts. The goal is to provide an independent accounting of events, apart from potentially inflated claims by advocates or misinformation spread by state-backed propaganda.
Military attacks on civilian populations and their property are generally forbidden under international laws governing armed conflicts going back more than a century. Efforts are already underway by the International Criminal Court in the Hague and Ukrainian prosecutors to compile evidence for future criminal indictments.
Russia is bombing “medical infrastructure on purpose, fighting sick people as if they were military,” said Pavlo Kovtoniuk, a former deputy minister of health and WHO consultant who co-founded the Ukrainian Healthcare Center, a think tank based in Kyiv that has been documenting attacks on hospitals. The AP journalists took photos and video of stunned survivors coming out of the hospital. A pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher held her belly, blood staining her sweatpants, her face pale. She later died following an emergency cesarean section at another nearby hospital, according to Dr. Timur Marin, one of the surgeons who tried to save her. The woman's baby also did not survive.
Ukrainian authorities say three were killed by the airstrike, including a child. Another 17 were wounded. Vishegirskaya is a blogger in Mariupol who before the war posted about skin care, makeup and cosmetics; there is no evidence that she was anything but a patient at the hospital. She posted multiple photos and videos on Instagram documenting her pregnancy in the past few months.
Russian commanders used similar airstrikes during the Syrian war. Physicians for Human Rights, an advocacy group that tracked attacks on medical workers in Syria, documented more than 250 attacks on medical facilities and staff after Russia intervened in the conflict in 2015. The advocacy group Human Rights Watch obtained additional photos from the hospital’s chief doctor, Natalia Sosyura, who provided the names of the four civilians who died in the strike. Ten others were reported to have been wounded.
The stockpiling and use of cluster munitions is banned under an international convention signed by 110 countries, but Russia and Ukraine are not among them. However, their use in civilian areas is by definition indiscriminate — a violation of international humanitarian law — since the munition scatters small grenade-sized bomblets over a wide area.
Statistics for the number of Ukrainian medical facilities damaged since Russia invaded vary widely. The Ukrainian Health Ministry says 248 medical facilities have been damaged, with 13 completely destroyed. The World Health Organization, by contrast, said 57 Ukrainian medical facilities have been damaged, some more than once. The AP and Frontline have only counted those they could independently confirm.
To try to keep their patients from the ongoing bombardment, Ohmatdyt’s staff moved them into the basement. An AP journalist who visited the facility on Feb. 28 photographedthree young cancer patients, their heads bald from chemotherapy. Two held up sheets of notebook paper with a handwritten message in English: “Stop War.”
“We felt the walls of the building shivering,” Ablamskaya, an administrator at the clinic, recounted. “So, we of course jumped up and went to take the patients.”
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
U.S. formally accuses Russia of war crimes as humanitarian crisis in Ukraine deepensAs President Biden headed Wednesday to a Europe with large-scale battles raging at its edge, his government formally declared that Russian forces have committed war crimes in their brutal attacks on civilians and others in Ukraine
Baca lebih lajut »
U.S. Officially Accuses Russia of War Crimes in UkraineSecretary of State Antony Blinken cited “credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities”
Baca lebih lajut »
Watch: Biden's press conference after talks with NATO allies on Russia-Ukraine warPresident Biden will hold a press conference in Brussels to talk about new support for Ukraine and refugees — and new measures aimed at trying to hold Russia to account for the invasion.
Baca lebih lajut »
US to expand Russia sanctions, accept 100K Ukrainian refugees and provide $1 billion in aidThe United States will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the country's parliament and the central bank's gold reserves, the White House announced Thursday.
Baca lebih lajut »
VIDEO: Russia Launches Missiles from Mobile Coastal Defense System at Ukrainian ForcesPutin touted the benefits of the K-300P Bastion-P mobile coastal defense system in 2015 media interview.
Baca lebih lajut »