British Armed Forces Minister Says Russian Commander Will Be Accounted For War Crimes

Illustration of the evacuation of victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/dsns.gov.ua/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russian military commanders, as well as those at the very top of the Russian government, will be held accountable for every war crime in Ukraine, the British Secretary of the Armed Forces said on Thursday.

"Russian commanders need to remember that war crimes are not only committed by those at the top of the Russian government", James Heappey told Sky News.

"They are being committed along the chain of command by all involved and these atrocities are being watched, they are being cataloged and people are being held accountable."

Heappey later said Britain was treating the Russian attack on the Mariupol maternity hospital as a war crime.

"Yes of course. That, that, what you see on the TV screen is a war crime. Now clearly there is evidence to be gathered to prove, it is a war crime and western countries are working together to ensure, evidence is collected in the best possible way so that people can be held accountable", he explained, as reported by Sky News.

"Let's be clear what Putin is doing is not a war being waged between two militaries, right now he has surrounded several Ukrainian cities. He is waging war against Ukrainian civilians", he said.

Earlier, President Zelenskiy accused Russia of "genocide" after Ukrainian officials said Russian planes bombed a children's hospital on Wednesday, burying patients in the rubble despite a ceasefire agreement for people fleeing Mariupol.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted video footage of what it said was a hospital, showing a hole where a window should have been in a three-story building. Huge piles of smoldering debris littered the scene.

The governor of the Donetsk region said 17 people were injured in the attack. The UN's human rights agency said it was trying to verify the toll in Mariupol. The incident "adds to our deep concern about the indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas", he added through a spokesman.