The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Saturday that it has started to gather evidence for war crimes committed by Russia in the form of attacking healthcare facilities in Ukraine.
During a news conference, emergencies director of the organisation, Mike Ryan, along with chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that warring parties have an obligation to avoid attacking healthcare facilities. Yet, 200 attacks on hospitals and clinics have already been documented in Ukraine by WHO.
Ryan said:
"Intentional attacks on healthcare facilities are a breach of international humanitarian law and as such - based on investigation and attribution of the attack - represent war crimes in any situation. We continue to document and bear witness to these attacks... and we trust that the UN system and the International Criminal Court and others will take the necessary investigations in order to assess the criminal intent behind these attacks".
In the past, Russia has denied accusations of having committed war crimes, as it has denied targeting civilians during the war.
Ryan noted that the 200 cases represent the attacks verified by WHO ad not the total number of attacks Russia performed against medical facilities in Ukraine. Kyiv has reported 400 such attacks since the Russian invasion on the 24th of February.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, reported that almost 400 healthcare facilities have been destroyed by Russian troops.
Tedros said during the news conference:
"My message to all the people of Ukraine is this: 'WHO stands by you'... We continue to call on the Russian Federation to stop this war."
[Based on reporting by: euronews.]
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