Russian Attack Hits Ukrainian Hospitals And Schools, UN Human Rights Chief: Could Be Considered A War Crime

UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet. (Wikimedia Commons/Government of Chile)

JAKARTA - Russia may have committed war crimes by killing civilians and destroying hospitals in Ukrainian cities, the UN's top human rights official said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, human rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged Russia to end its five-week invasion.

"Houses and administrative buildings, hospitals and schools, water stations and electrical systems are not spared," he said.

"Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and can be considered a war crime," he stressed.

Bachelet said his office had received credible allegations that Russian forces had used cluster munitions or cluster bombs in populated areas at least 24 times. His office is also investigating Ukraine's alleged use of cluster munitions.

Bachelet further revealed that his office, which deploys nearly 60 UN monitors in Ukraine, has verified 77 incidents in which medical facilities were damaged, including 50 hospitals.

Separately, US human rights envoy Michele Taylor said she was alarmed by reports of kidnappings by Russian forces, including at least three mayors, and the forced deportation of civilians.

"It is clear that President Putin is desperate to turn Ukrainian cities to dust," added British Ambassador Simon Manley.

In his speech, Bachelet also expressed concern over the video circulating on social media, which showed the interrogation of prisoners of war by Ukrainian and Russian troops.

Meanwhile, Yaroslav Eremin, first secretary of the Russian mission at the UN in Geneva, accused abuses by Ukrainian forces which accused of torturing prisoners, using residents as human shields in Mariupol, killing 21 civilians with cluster munitions in Donetsk.

"In publicly available footage near Kharkiv, unarmed Russians have been shot in the kneecaps, they have plastic bags on their heads, some of them are unconscious," he said.

"All these atrocities against civilians were carried out using weapons supplied by Western countries," Eremin criticized.

Russia has denied using cluster bombs or targeting civilians since launching what it calls "special operations" to disarm and 'denazify' its neighbors on April 24.