Letter to Prosecutor General of Ukraine Re: Attacks on Health Facilities

Senior Counsellor of Justice Anatolii Matios

Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine

Deputy Prosecutor-General of Ukraine

Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine

Annex – Detailed descriptions of relevant incidents

Incident involving the Railway Hospital in Krasnyi Liman, Donetsk region – June 3, 2014

GPS coordinates: 48°57'57.3"N 37°48'38.4"E; 48.965907, 37.810675            

On July 2, 2014 Human Rights Watch researchers visited the Krasnyi Liman Railway Hospital in Donetsk region, located at 48°57'57.3"N 37°48'38.4"E. We conducted interviews with three of the hospital’s health workers, including the chief doctor and several Krasnyi Liman residents.

Medical personnel told Human Rights Watch that the hospital was shelled with mortars on June 3, 2014 from about 3:30pm to 3:40pm. They said that a total of nine mortars hit the hospital and its grounds. The hospital’s chief doctor told Human Rights Watch that they believed that Ukrainian forces, which at the time were wresting control over the area from Russia-backed rebel forces, fired the mortars.

The hospital’s chief doctor and two junior health workers told Human Rights Watch that the hospital had received no advance warning of an attack, and that patients had not been evacuated. The chief doctor said that a shell fragment struck the hospital’s only surgeon in the head. He died several days later from his wounds.

The chief doctor told Human Rights Watch that on the morning of June 4, soldiers from the Ukrainian military arrived at the hospital in an armored vehicle and asked to be shown through all the wards. According to the chief doctor, a commander showed the doctor a map and said: “Look here. Here is your hospital marked on the map. And it’s marked specifically as an insurgent hospital. That’s why it happened.” After inspecting all the wards and facilities, the military officials acknowledged that there were no militants present in the hospital and left. Two other medical workers interviewed separately by Human Rights Watch corroborated the chief doctor’s account. Another group of soldiers searched the hospital a second time on June 9.

During the visit to the facility, Human Rights Watch observed structural damage to the facility’s roof, walls, and windows (see Figures 1-3). The shelling seriously damaged the facility’s pharmacy and general therapy, surgery, and gynecology wings. Human Rights Watch viewed numerous photographs taken by hospital personnel right after the attacks and examined nine craters from the shells and several remaining fragments, which were consistent with a 120 mm mortar attack. Human Rights Watch also examined the neighboring buildings and noted that they had not suffered any damage except for small shell fragment damage to some of the walls, which suggests that the hospital building may have been targeted.

The hospital’s chief doctor told Human Rights Watch that he had promptly filed a complaint with the district prosecutor’s office and submitted all shell fragments and fragments to prosecutors. He said that the prosecutor’s office recorded his testimony and examined the hospital grounds. In July 2014, Human Rights Watch wrote a letter to President Petro Poroshenko (attached) urging further investigation into this incident but has received no response to date.[1] At the time of Human Rights Watch’s first letter to President Poroshenko in July 2014, the investigation by the district prosecutor’s office was still ongoing.

In light of Human Rights Watch’s observations that the hospital suffered disproportionate damaged due to the shelling compared to the surrounding area in addition to testimony that alleged a Ukrainian commander suggested that this medical facility was hit because insurgents were thought to be inside, Human Rights Watch is concerned that this medical facility may have been intentionally targeted. Under international humanitarian law, intentionally directing an attack against a medical facility exclusively engaged in medical activities is a war crime. As such, the Ukrainian authorities have an obligation to investigate this incident.

Human Rights Watch seeks the following information about the investigation into the attack on Krasnyi Liman Railway Hospital:

1. We understand that the district prosecutor’s office in Krasnyi Liman opened an investigation into the shelling of the Railway Hospital in 2014. What is the status of that investigation? If it was completed, what were its findings? Has the investigation established whether the attack was intentional or not?
2. If appropriate, what steps were taken to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the hospital?
3. We also request a copy of the findings of any investigation into this incident for use in our work on attacks on medical facilities.

Incident involving Krasnodonskaya Central District Hospital in Novosvitlivka, Luhansk region – August 13-28, 2014

GPS coordinates: 48°29'04.1"N 39°30'52.2"E; 48.484472, 39.514500

Between August 13 and 28, 2014, Novosvitlivka, Luhansk region was the scene of heavy fighting between Ukrainian government forces and rebel troops, during which the local hospital was hit repeatedly. Local residents told Human Rights Centre Memorial that Novosvitlivka was shelled by both sides from August 19 to 28 as Russia-backed rebel forces attempted to wrest control over the village from Ukrainian forces.[2] Residents described attacks on the village by mortars, Grads, and howitzers and attacks on the hospital by mortars and Grads. These reports were consistent with Human Rights Watch’s on-site observations.

On November 14, 2014, Human Rights Watch visited Krasnodonskaya Central District Hospital, located in Novosvitlivka at 48°29'04.1"N 39°30'52.2"E and gathered testimony from medical personnel and local residents.

Three ambulance workers told Human Rights Watch that Ukrainian forces (National Guard and Aidar battalion) entered the area on August 13 and positioned soldiers, three tanks, and several other armored vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the hospital. The hospital was repeatedly shelled over the course of the next two weeks. The Ukrainian forces moved their position away from the hospital on August 26 and left Novosvitlivka on August 28.

Two doctors and one nurse told Human Rights Watch that they stayed in the hospital basement throughout the shelling and continued to provide medical care to wounded civilians and Ukrainian soldiers. They also cared for four people with chronic health conditions who were moved into the basement, two of whom were paralyzed and one of whom was in a wheelchair.

Human Rights Watch researcher observed two severely damaged armored vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the hospital as well as one damaged tank and two more damaged armored vehicles across the road from the hospital (see Figures 11-14 below). Photo documentation by Human Rights Centre Memorial and Human Rights Watch shows that the damaged armored vehicles across the road from the hospital were within 100 meters of the main hospital building.[3] Witnesses said that these military vehicles were hit in the August 2014 shelling and had been left where they were hit by Ukrainian forces.

Hospital staff continued to treat the wounded from the facility’s basement during the shelling. After Ukrainian forces left, staff reopened undamaged wings of the hospital to keep the facility partially functional. According to healthcare workers, the shelling damaged the hospital’s surgery, general therapy, infectious disease, and neurology wings; only the outpatient clinic and the ambulance station remained in service. Human Rights Watch viewed photo documentation that shows extensive structural damage to the facility (see Figures 4-10 below).

Positioning military equipment in the immediate vicinity of a medical facility places it, a protected civilian object, at greater risk of suffering damage as a result of a military attack. International humanitarian law requires that hospitals and facilities intended to shelter the wounded and sick from the effects of conflict should not be part of military operations. Therefore, all parties to the conflict should ensure that they do not conduct their military operations so as to endanger medical facilities and should take meaningful steps to prevent the military occupation of hospitals. Parties to a military conflict must, to the maximum extent feasible, take precautions to protect civilian populations and objects against the dangers resulting from military operations, and to ensure that medical facilities and units are situated so as to avoid damage by attacks against military objectives. Furthermore, Ukraine’s IHL Manual (2004) states that commanding officers “shall take all possible precautionary measures to avoid collateral damage to the civilian population and to civilian objects, or, at least, to minimize it.”[4]

Human Rights Watch requests the following information:

1. Has the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine or any other Ukrainian investigative agency conducted an investigation into the shelling of the Krasnodonskaya Central District Hospital in Novosvitlivka? If so, what did these investigations find regarding the role of the Ukrainian Ground Forces? Have these been made public?
2. As part of the investigation, did investigators determine whether the apparent positioning of military vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the hospital violate international humanitarian law? If these actions were found to violate international humanitarian law, were any disciplinary actions or other steps taken to hold accountable those responsible?
3. We also request a copy of the findings of any investigation into this incident for use in our work on attacks on medical facilities.