The Russian Federation wants to justify itself for Okhmatdyt: ISW analyzed whether Moscow will avoid responsibility
Date: 2024-07-09 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WAR
The Russians are trying to justify the missile attack on the Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv and have even launched a large-scale information operation to do so. But analysts are convinced that the enemy will not be able to escape responsibility for a war crime.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the occupiers are falsely claiming that the children's hospital is partly or entirely military, allegedly making it a legitimate military target. But Okhmatdyt is the largest multidisciplinary children's hospital in Ukraine, which admits up to 18 thousand children a year.
At the same time, Russia signed the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Art. 19 of the document notes that international legal protection for civilian hospitals does not end if the institution does not commit “actions harmful to the enemy,” and therefore even a military hospital is not a legitimate target.
“Article 19 of the Convention also states that the “enemy” must give a warning before attacking a hospital that allegedly contains a “harmful” military target. No Russian sources claim that the Russian authorities gave such a warning, nor have they provided evidence that a hospital full of sick children posed an imminent threat to Russian troops,” the analysts explained.
The statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense that Okhmatdyt was hit by a Ukrainian air defense interceptor and the statement of one of the Russian military officers that a Russian missile accidentally hit a medical facility will also not relieve the occupiers from responsibility.
The Institute for the Study of War recalled that Russia is the aggressor state in this war, and therefore, if the Kremlin had not invaded Ukraine and launched regular attacks, the Defense Forces would not have had to defend against Russian missiles.
The ISW report adds that false Russian information operations do not absolve occupying forces from legal or moral responsibility for the consequences of attacks on Ukraine.
