Ukrainian Attorney General Asks ICC To Tried Russia For Hospital Attack In Kyiv

ICC/Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - Ukrainian Attorney General Andriy Kostin asked the International Criminal Court to try Russia over a missile attack on a child hospital in Kyiv earlier this week.

"For the sake of international justice, cases such as intentional attacks on Kyiv's largest child hospital deserve to be submitted to the ICC," the Attorney General told Reuters.

The Ukrainian capital on Monday saw one of the worst days of airstrikes since the start of Russia's war, and attacks across the country killed 44 people including two adults at the Okhmadyt children's hospital.

Moscow denies attacking the hospital and blamed Ukraine's anti-missile fire on the attack on the clinic, which is one of Europe's largest clinics and treating patients with serious conditions such as cancer and kidney disease.

The UN human rights mission said it was likely that the hospital was hit by a direct attack from Russian missiles, and Ukraine's security services said they had clear evidence that the medical facility was hit by Russia's Kh-101 cruise missile strike.

Kostin, who is in The Hague for regular meetings with law officials, said if the ICC takes action against the hospital strike, it could help establish an attack pattern that shows Russia is committing crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

The ICC Prosecutor's Office said on Tuesday that one of its teams had visited the hospital's location. Although they did not publicly comment on which charges they were investigating, the ICC has warned anyone deemed responsible for the attacks on civilian areas could be prosecuted.

They have issued six arrest warrants for alleged Russian crimes in Ukraine including a warrant for the arrest of President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations its troops have committed atrocities since they invaded its neighboring country.

Kostin said the decision to try was in the hands of the ICC prosecutor, adding Ukraine was ready to share physical evidence or details of its investigation with the court.

He said although Ukrainian authorities were investigating all the attacks on Monday, they could only file charges for war crimes and not more serious offenses, namely crimes against humanity because they are not part of Ukraine's criminal law.

The key element of prosecuting crimes against humanity involves demonstrations of systematic attacks on civilians, said Kostin.

"It is important to show that Russia itself is currently a criminal country," he said.