March 2022 — MHCE
News from MHCE MARCH 2022 EDITION Bill Would Help National Guard, Reserve Members Get Benefits See page 25 Monthly Newsletter Russian Attacks Hit at Least 9 Ukrainian Medical Facilities, Visual Evidence Shows Windows blasted out, a car in flames, patients limping away to safety — this was the scene at a maternity hospital in Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, after a Russian strike tore through the facility, killing at least three people and injuring 17 on March 9, according to Mariupol officials. The maternity hospital was one of many health care facilities hit amid Russia's siege on key Ukrainian cities since the nation's invasion in late February, a new Washington Post analysis reveals. To confirm which hospitals have been damaged, The Washington Post examined more than 500 videos and photos, reviewed social media posts from the hospitals, spoke to witnesses and hospital employees, and compared key details from these incidents to reports from Ukrainian officials, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Information Resilience and ACLED, a group that monitors armed conflict around the world. The Post's visual analysis verified nine incidents, including the strike in Mariupol, where hospitals faced direct damage as a result of a reported Russian attack. There were fatalities in at least three of the incidents verified by The Post, according to officials. Three of the facilities specifically served women or children. "Hospitals and medical facilities are protected by international humanitarian law," a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jason Straziuso, said in an email. Medical facilities are considered "protected objects" under the law unless they are used for military purposes, said Priyanka Motaparthy, director of the Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights Project at Columbia University Law School's Human Rights Institute. "When you are hitting in the hospital, you're not only risking killing people who are receiving medical care, who are sick and wounded, but also because of the long-term effects on a civilian population," she said. Motaparthy added that the opposing party must give warning before it attacks. International law experts who reviewed The Post's findings said they appear to show evidence that Russian forces have violated these laws. In at least one case, a pro-Russian media outlet has claimed that a hospital damaged in Ukraine was used for military purposes. The Post found no evidence to support this claim. Motaparthy said an investigation into the incidents should consider any statement the Russian military gave for why it struck the hospital, but hospitals are presumed to be civilian. The deadliest attacks In one of the deadliest incidents The Post reviewed, Russian forces fired a ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition, which hit the Central City Hospital in Vuhledar, a town in the separatist Donetsk region on Feb. 24, according to visuals obtained and analyzed in a report by Human Rights Watch. The munition hit just outside the hospital, killing four and injuring 10 civilians, six of whom were health care workers. Human Rights Watch confirmed the events by speaking to a doctor and official from the hospital and verifying photos posted to social media and sent directly by hospital staff. The Post confirmed the geolocation of the photo of damage to the hospital by comparing it to available source imagery on Google Earth, and WWW.MHCE.US the incident was also reported by ACLED. The World Health Organization, which has not released the locations of the 24 attacks it has confirmed, listed a single strike on Feb. 24 with the same number of casualties. Cluster munitions are "inherently indiscriminate weapons," Motaparthy noted. She explained they often malfunction, leaving behind bomblets that can explode months or years after an attack. They also disperse over a wide area, making them extremely dangerous in populated areas. The U.N. human rights office has found "credible reports" that Russian forces have used cluster munitions several times since the war began, and that these attacks "may amount to war crimes." In addition to the events in Vuhledar and Mariupol, three people died after a strike on an intensive care hospital in Vasylivka, according to officials. A medical campus in the southeastern city of Vasylivka was struck by Russian rockets on March 1, killing three people and injuring four, the Official channel of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration reported on Telegram. The Post geolocated video showing damaged buildings on the compound by comparing it to source imagery on Google Earth. At least a third of the incidents verified by The Post included centers that treated women or children. The attack in Mariupol hit a maternity ward and another damaged a pediatric dental clinic in Chernihiv. Continued on page 13
