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The Investigative Committee Initiates Criminal Case on Shelling of Hospital in Volnovakha, Donetsk People's Republic

The Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated another criminal case on a possible crime under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code (ill-treatment of civilians, use of means and methods prohibited by an international treaty of the Russian Federation in an armed conflict) in connection with the death of people during the shelling of a hospital in Volnovakha by the Ukrainian military.

The investigators found that on the night of March 13, 2022, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other Ukrainian military formations, being near the central district hospital of the city of Volnovakha in the Donetsk People's Republic, carried out obviously criminal orders of higher commanders and officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, violating the requirements enshrined in the Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land (The Hague, 18.10.1907), prohibiting attack or bombing by any way of unprotected cities, villages, dwellings or buildings, and the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949 and additional protocols thereto, guaranteeing the protection of civilian population and individual civilians from the danger arising from military operations, as well as of civilian facilities that must not be the object of attacks. The abovementioned Ukrainian troops purposefully delivered a massive artillery strike with a multiple rocket launcher Grad and tanks on the building of the central district hospital of Volnovakha, knowing that there still were about 500 civilians undergoing treatment inside the medical facilities.

As a result of the shelling, at least 6 civilians not involved in the armed conflict were killed, and the hospital building sustained significant damage.

The work on collecting evidence of the commission of war crimes against civilians by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions continues in order to identify specific individuals and hold them criminally liable.