A week ago, the building of the National Specialized Children’s Hospital “Okhmatdyt” in Kyiv was the target of missile attacks – an unusual action, even in the circumstances of a war. At the time of the attack, about 700 children were inside the medical institution. Of these, one died and eight were injured. Two adults also died, one of whom worked as a doctor at the hospital. This attack shook the whole world and world leaders came up with messages of condemnation against Russia. What and why happened, how much such actions characterize the war waged by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, under what international provisions such attacks fall, what consequences these actions could have, and also what lessons should be learned were among the issued discussed by the invitees of IPN’s public debate “War crimes: reasons and consequences”.
According to the project’s permanent expert Igor Boţan, war crimes are particularly serious violations of international humanitarian law during combat operations, which violate the balance between the universal humanitarian principle and the necessity of war. “The laws and traditions of war, in international law, are the rules of war, usually established by multilateral agreements between states. They are aimed at eliminating the most brutal methods of warfare and protecting civilians in conditions of hostilities. They also regulate the relations between the belligerent states and between belligerent and neutral states,” noted the expert.
As for international humanitarian law, Igor Boțan Botan said that it is a set of international legal norms applicable during an armed conflict and regulating the behavior of the parties to such a conflict. Such rules can be codified in international conventions or contained in international customs regarding the conduct of war.
International humanitarian law is traditionally divided into the Law of The Hague and the Law of Geneva, according to the names of the corresponding conventions. The Hague Convention primarily regulates the methods of warfare, limits the parties involved in the war in choosing the means and methods of causing damage to the enemy, limits violence, etc. The Geneva Convention, consisting of four conventions and three additional protocols, regulates the situation of vulnerable groups in war.
According to the expert, there is a universal principle stipulating that, even if a certain situation is not envisioned in one of the conventions, in the conditions of armed conflicts the parties must be guided by the principle of humanity and sound reason. The Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of the Civilian Persons in Time of War says that civilian hospitals in particular should not be the target of attacks.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Moldova Marko Shevchenko said that on July 8, at around 10:00 a.m., combined missile attacks on city of Kyiv took place for half an hour. In total, 38 missiles of different types were launched. A part of the missiles avoided the air protection system of the capital of Ukraine and one of them hit the National Specialized Children’s Hospital “Okhmatdyt”, which is located in the center of the city. At the same time, at a distance of about 100 meters from the hospital there is a school, which shall also not be the object of attack, according to international humanitarian law. The Ukrainian authorities believe that the hospital was intentionally chosen as a target for the attacks.
“Shortly after this attack, another missile hit a new target on the other bank of the Dnieper River, but also in the city of Kyiv. It is a private clinic, specialized in providing maternity services. It is a facility intended for children and mothers and it shall also not be the object of attack in the event of a war. And linking these two cases, I affirm that these facilities were intentionally selected as targets for attacks. It is yet another war crime by the Russian authorities. It cannot be an error or chance as it is a targeted missile attack on infrastructure designed to protect the health and life of children and their mothers,” stated Marko Shevchenko.
According to him, the National Specialized Children’s Hospital “Okhmatdyt” in Kiev is a famous medical institution known since the times of the former Soviet Union. Serious cases from the regions and districts of the country are referred to this hospital in Kyiv where there are the best specialists, the best medical equipment to treat the most serious patients. And there were cases when serious children from Moldova were also transferred to Kyiv for treatment.
The public debate entitled “War crimes: reasons and consequences” was the 310th installment of IPN’s project “Developing political culture through public debates”, which is implemented with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
