The labour of truth
Myths and Reality: Russia's Attack on a Maternity Hospital in Mariupol as a War Crime
At approximately 16:00 EET (UTC+2) on 9 March, Mariupol was bombed by aircraft. The
Mariupol Territorial Medical Association for Children’s and Women's Health at 80 Myru
Prospect, which includes a maternity hospital, was targeted.1 17 civilians, including mothers,
their babies, and doctors were injured. One infant was killed.2
Later, the activist Mykola Kuleba announced on his Facebook page that a pregnant
woman (pictured below) injured during the bombing also died.3 The victim’s personal
information has not been disclosed, but, following the bombing of the maternity hospital, thewoman had been taken to another hospital. The attending doctor said that the explosion had
shattered her pelvis and tore off her thigh. Doctors performed a caesarean section, but thechild "showed no signs of life". Afterwards, doctors tried to resuscitate the woman for half anhour, but could not save her.4

Photo taken immediately after the attack of a wounded pregnant woman who later died alongwith her unborn child.

The media of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”, as well as pro-Russian outlets
and Russian officials, stated that there were no civilians present in the maternity hospital, butthat the Ukrainian military was stationed there.5
1

Vyacheslav Abroskin, Facebook, 09.03.22 at 15:57, available athttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2841468042812518&set=a.1393213520971318&type=3.
2Маріупольська міська рада, Telegram, 10.03.22 at 09:06, available at: https://t.me/mariupolrada/8783.
3Пост М.Кулеби в соціальній мережі Facebook, available at:https://www.facebook.com/KulebaMykola/videos/706472207198229/.
4Одна з вагітних із обстріляного військами РФ пологового будинку у Маріуполі померла разом зненародженою дитиною – ЗМІ,14.03.22, at 13.00 availble at https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/newsmariupol-vagitna-smert/31752137.html.
5Неофициальный БеZсоноV, Telegram, 09.03.22 at 18:27, available at: t.me/neoficialniybezsonov/8421.

Chronology of statements by the Russian Federation:
7 March 2022 — At a meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia's Permanent
Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that, according to local residents, the Armed
Forces of Ukraine had established a firing position in Mariupol’s Maternity Hospital №1,
expelling all personnel.6
8 March 2022 — at 00:01 MSK (UTC+3), a few hours after the meeting of the UN
Security Council, a report titled “‘They will not last more than a week’ - Mariupol residents on
the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding before their eyes” was published on the Russian
news website Lenta.ru.7 This article mentions a man named Igor (his surname is not specified),according to whom, in the last days of February, people in uniform came to the maternity
hospital where his mother works. Igor claims that he does not know if they were soldiers of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the Azov Battalion, however, he claims that they knocked
down all the locks, dispersed the staff of the maternity hospital, and set up firing positions in
the building in order - as they explained to the doctors - to prepare for the defence of the“Mariupol fortress”. They struck people with the butts of their rifles and fired into the air.
Immediately after the attack on the maternity hospital, the article was removed from the siteand can now only be found in the WebArchive repository.
8 March 2022 — Four hours before the airstrike, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova stated that "in Mariupol, representatives of the national [Ukrainian] battalions
set up firing positions in the maternity hospital".8
15:50 EET — Mariupol was targeted with aerial bombs, some of which hit the local hospitaland maternity hospital.9
19:38 MSK (18:38 EET) — An article in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper was posted
online. It purported to report "facts" disproving the bombing of Maternity Hospital № 1. The
article also cites unidentified war correspondents who claim that “since the start of the military
operation, this [NB: they do not specify which] maternity hospital has been occupied by twocompanies of the 36th Marine Brigade and all patients and staff have been evicted to otherfacilities, some were sent home". As with the Lenta.ru article, this article by Komsomolskaya
Pravda was also deleted and can now only be found on WebArchive.106Выступление и ответное слово Постоянного представителя В.А.Небензи на заседании СБ ООН погуманитарной ситуации на Украине, Постоянное представительство Российской Федерации при ООН,07.03.2022, available at: https://russiaun.ru/ru/news/070322n.
7“Больше недели им не продержаться» Жители Мариуполя — о гуманитарной катастрофе, которая
разворачивается у них на глазах, Lenta.Ru, 08.03.22 at 00:01, available at:https://web.archive.org/web/20220307220950/https://lenta.ru/articles/2022/03/08/mariupol/.
8Удар по роддому в Мариуполе не случайный, его анонсировали, Youtube, 07.03.2022, available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-aCvEhBr4Y.
9
No title, Telegram Маріупольська міська рада, 09.03.22 at 16:35, available at t.me/mariupolrada/8765.
10Кто на самом деле разбомбил детскую больницу в Мариуполе, Комсомольская правда, 09.03.2022 at
19:38, available at:https://web.archive.org/web/20220310110728/https://www.kp.ru/daily/27374/4556142/.

10 March 2022 — The Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, stated that
the Russian defence ministry could not provide information on the shelling of the maternity
hospital in Mariupol, stating: "We will definitely ask our military because, of course, we do nothave clear information about what happened there and probably our military will provide some
information. I cannot say".11
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while in Turkey for talks with the Turkish andUkrainian foreign ministers, said that Mariupol’s Maternity Hospital № 1 was used as a basefor the Azov Battalion, stating: “On 7 March, three days ago, at a meeting of the UN Security
Council, our delegation presented the facts that this maternity hospital had long been occupiedby the Azov Battalion and other radicals, by whom all mothers, nurses, and all personnel were
expelled”.12
On the same day, the Russian Ministry of Defence, represented by Major General Igor
Konashenkov, declared that "the Kyiv regime staged a provocation around Mariupol’s Hospital№ 3 to accuse Russia of airstrikes". The Russian defence ministry announced a "regime ofsilence" to safely evacuate civilians from the city, claiming that Russian aircraft in Mariupol did
not perform any strikes against targets on the ground (the article in which this was claimed
was also later deleted).13
10 March 2022 — The official Twitter page of the Russian Embassy in the United
Kingdom published a post claiming that the attack on the hospital and maternity hospital in
Mariupol was faked. These posts were later deleted by Twitter. At the same time, Russian
media and the Russian Instagram community launched a campaign to harass one of the
injured patients, Mariupol beauty blogger Marianna Pidhurska (Vyshemirska), who theyaccused of staging the event.

11Песков заявил, что у него нет данных о ситуации с обстрелом роддома в Мариуполе, ТАСС, 10.03.2022
available at:https://tass.ru/politika/14021175?utm_source=meduza.io&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=meduza.io&utm_referrer=meduza.io.
12Лавров дал разъяснения по поводу бомбежки роддома в Мариуполе, Взгляд - деловая газета,10.03.2022 at 13:47, available at: https://vz.ru/news/2022/3/10/1147883.html.
13В Минобороны назвали "авиаудар" по Мариуполю срежиссированной провокацией. Риа Новости,10.03.2022 at 19:20, available at:https://web.archive.org/web/20220310162132/https://ria.ru/20220310/provokatsiya-1777547947.html.

Screenshot of the deleted Twitter post by the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom.

Comments on the Instagram page of Marianna Pidhurska (Vyshemirska).

11 March 2022 — At a meeting of the UN Security Council, the Permanent
Representative of the Russian Federation, Vasily Nebenzya, showed photos that allegedly
prove that the shelling of the Mariupol maternity hospital was staged by the Ukrainian side. In
his speech, he also said: "Have you seen videos and photos of the allegedly destroyedmaternity hospital? I have them, you can see a building without windows, but not destroyed.
Can you imagine what must have happened to the building after the bomb or rocket strike andto those in the building? A photo inside the building shows clutter and intact chairs. I ask you
again, can you imagine what the destruction should be after a bomb or missile strike? Military
experts will tell you. They have already said, showing a photo of the explosion crater near thebuilding which, by all indications, was formed as a result of a mine detonated in the ground.
By the way, are told about 17 wounded in this building and no one killed. As evidence, we are
given a fake photo of Ukrainian blogger Marianna Pidhurska (Vyshemirska) and this blogger,in two photos, is made up as two different women, all this was disproved by the users of the[Instagram] network.”14

The representative of the Russian Federation shows a photo from the destroyed hospital in Mariupol
at the UN Security Council meeting, 11.03.22.

Etymology of disproof
I. The different locations of the real bombed hospital and the one referred to by the
Russain side. In statements by Russian officials and various media outlets, Maternity
Hospital № 1 was the one mentioned the most, while the target of the attack was the Mariupol
Territorial Medical Association for Children’s and Women's Health, which is a multiplepurpose complex medical institution providing medical services for women and children ofdifferent ages (not only infants), as well as pregnant women and women in labour.15 These
two medical institutions have different addresses and locations - the distance between themis more than 8 km. The address of Mariupol’s Maternity Hospital №1 is 1 Metalurhiyna Street,
while the address of the Mariupol Territorial Medical Association for Children’s and Women's
Health is 80 Myru Prospect.
14Ответное слово В.А.Небензи на заседании СБ ООН по вопросу о биолабораториях на Украине,published 11 March 2022, available at: https://youtu.be/aeraWpJTem8?t=195.
15Медицинский портал гоград Мариуполя, available at: http://mariupol.medkontrol.pro/mtmo-zdorovyarebenka-i-zhenshhiny.

Based on a comparison of the photo of the Mariupol Territorial Medical Association forChildren’s and Women's Health from its official page on the MedControl website16 with thevideo from the bombsite, it is evident that it is indeed the Mariupol Territorial Medical
Association for Children’s and Women's Health that was bombed.

16Медицинский портал гоград Мариуполя, available at: http://mariupol.medkontrol.pro/mtmo-zdorovyarebenka-i-zhenshhiny.

Photo of the hospital from the official medical portal of Mariupol (MedControl) and a still from a
video taken at the same hospital on the day of the bombing.

II. Differences in the testimony of Russian representatives and media reports. Russia's
Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, and Komsomolskaya Pravda bothclaimed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were stationed at the hospital. Yet, media reports
refer specifically to two companies of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Force,
while Foreign Minister Lavrov and other media outlets claimed the presence of “formations of
the Azov [Battalion]”.

III. Lack of proof of the allegation that Ukrainian combatants were stationed at thehospital. As it is evident from Nebenzya's statement at the UN Security Council, the only
evidence that corroborates the presence of Ukrainian combatants in the hospital was thealleged oral statements of local residents. It should be noted that there were no media reports(even on Russian social networks) claiming that the Ukrainian Armed Forces or Azov Battalion
were stationed at the hospital. The only source that contains such first-hand information is thereport in the above mentioned article by Lenta.ru. However, this article was published only a
day before the attack on the maternity hospital of the Mariupol Territorial Medical Association
for Children’s and Women's Health, and secondly, it was published after Nebenzya's speechat the UN Security Council on 7 March and was removed altogether soon after. Thus, Sergey
Lavrov's claim that he was monitoring the situation and had been acquainted with "emotionallycomposed reports in the media" (allegedly, he had received information about the seizure of
the medical institution three days before the attack)17 cannot be considered reliable. As oneof the employees of the medical institution noted, “there were problems with heating,electricity, and water in the hospital, as well as with baby food”. As for the false Russianstatements that Ukrainian combatants were hiding in the hospital, she explains, “Azov
Battalion representatives were in the hospital on 3 March, they brought a whole truckload ofhumanitarian aid - diapers, baby food, cosmetics. The hospital was shelled on 9 March”.18
IV. No visual evidence of Ukrainian military stationed in the hospital. Numerous photos
and videos from the scene also disprove allegations regarding the stationing of Ukrainian
servicemen in the medical facility and the lack of staff and patients there. They clearly show
injured patients and hospital staff. In a video of the destroyed hospital, there are no signs ofany military presence, let alone a longstanding one, as Russian officials tried to claim. Instead,one can see the remains of furniture, medical equipment, and the personal belongings of thepeople who were inside.19 In addition, in the photos showing external damage, one can see
damaged cars, but no military equipment, which, according to the Russian sources, was also
supposedly on the territory of the hospital and which would be very convenient to place in the
courtyard of the building that was bombed.

17Роддом был захвачен батальоном «Азов», оттуда выгнали всех рожениц: Лавров ответил на вопрос оситуации в Мариуполе, Клопс, 10.03.2022 at 13:12 available at: https://klops.ru/news/2022-03-10/248944roddom-byl-zahvachen-batalonom-azov-ottuda-vygnali-vseh-rozhenits-lavrov-otvetil-na-vopros-o-situatsii-vmariupole.
18"Я проклинаю окупантів". Лікарка Маріупольської лікарні розповіла, що знищили росіяни, Liga.net,
13.03.2022, at 16:30 available at: https://life.liga.net/istoriyi/article/ya-proklinayu-rossiyan-vrachmariupolskogo-rodilnogo-rasskazala-chto-unichtojili-okkupanty?fbclid=IwAR0K5Jz7mfKMqwF8ewBBa8FCKg0VYVvK7Qf2jCGLAwd29rLiGksN8kjLwA.
19Російські окупанти здійснили авіаудар по лікарні та пологовому будинку в Маріуполі, Youtube,
09.03.2022, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWIAaUzXp3Y.

Stills from the video taken inside the destroyed Mariupol hospital on 9 March 2022.

Photos from the destroyed hospital in Mariupol, taken on 9 March 2022.

Patients and medical staff after the shelling of the hospital in Mariupol on 9 March
2022.

V. The alleged staging of an actress pretending to be an injured pregnant woman. As
for the pregnant woman in the maternity hospital, who Russian propaganda painted as anactress, these allegations have been disproved by a close relative of the woman. This relative

told local journalists: “Marianna found a good doctor in a maternity hospital on the Left Bankof Mariupol, she had to give birth there. But on the day when she was supposed to go there
for the last ultrasound check-up, the bombing began there and there were hits on the maternity
hospital. So she did not go and urgently registered with the Maternal and Children’s HealthHospital [the renamed Children's Hospital № 3, the same one that was bombed]. She was due
to give birth on 9-10 March. That's why she was in that hospital on that terrible, fateful day ofthe shelling".20
VI. The allegation that the explosion crater was caused by a Ukrainian mine meant toblow up the hospital. Before analysing the explosion crater in the photo, it is necessary torefer to the interrogation of a Russian prisoner of war, pilot Alexander Krasnoyartsev, during
which he said that Russian military command deliberately orders bombings of civilian
infrastructure and residential areas of Ukrainian cities. Additionally, instead of using precisionguided munitions, as claimed by Russian military commanders and propagandists, he said
that they were using free-fall bombs (not precision-guided) OFAB-250-270, FAB-500, OFZAB500. It should be noted that before Russia’s current armed aggression against Ukraine, Russia
used the same unguided bombs in Syria.21
High-explosive aircraft bombs (FAB) are designed to destroy ground and undergroundtargets through explosions, shockwaves, and penetrative and shrapnel impacts. The
characteristic which distinguishes the FAB from other types of bombs is the higher coefficientof the explosive filling (40-55%), which provides the highly efficient explosive action of
expanding gas-forming products. Sufficiently strong and massive bomb shells have a large
reserve of kinetic energy capable of breaking through obstacles, penetrating to a sufficientdepth and with shrapnel impact.2220

Хто така Маріанна Вишемірська, і чому російська пропаганда використала її для свого чергового фейку,0629 сайт города Мариуполя, 11.03.2022, at 11:57 available at:https://www.0629.com.ua/news/3347951/hto-taka-marianna-visemirska-i-comu-rosijska-propagandavikoristala-ii-dla-svogo-cergovogo-fejku-foto.
21Итоги военной операции ВКС в Сирии-спецпроект ТАСС, 15.03.2016 available at :https://tass.ru/spec/syria?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=google.com&utm_referrer=google.com.
22Власов Л.А. Конструкции авиационных средств поражения: Учебное пособие / Под ред.
М.Я.Водопьянова; Балт. гос. техн. ун-т. СПб., 2004. с. 71,72.

The main types of bombs compared by size.

The nature of the destruction and the shape of the crater following the explosion at the
Mariupol hospital indicate that it was caused by an aircraft bomb, at least a modification of the
FAB-500. This type of bomb is characterised by a crater of the same geometric shape, up to
8.5 m deep, while the maximum radius of destruction of such a bomb for vulnerable vehicles
is 110-190 m.23 All this is evident from the video taken at the bombsite near the Mariupol
maternity hospital on 9 March. It is obvious that the technical characteristics of at least a 500kg high-explosive bomb correspond to the general picture of the destruction after the bombingof the maternity hospital and the other nearby hospital building of the Mariupol Territorial
Medical Association for Children’s and Women's Health.
It should also be noted that on 10 March, Russian troops carried out another air raid on
the city and bombed its downtown, close to a local drama theatre. The nature of theconsequences of this bombing - the form of the crater and the destruction caused by thebombing - are quite similar to the consequences of the bombing of the hospital.24 Thus, it canbe concluded that Russian troops purposefully and repeatedly used high-explosive bombs
against civilians.

23Фугасная авиационная бомба ФАБ-500, Новости ВПК, available at:https://vpk.name/library/f/fab500.html.
24Маріуполь 10 березня | російська бомба ФАБ зробила велетенську вирву біля драмтеатру, Youtube,
10.03.2022 available at: https://youtube.com/shorts/V_jQOMi7Uqs?feature=share.

Photo 1: The crater from an aerial bomb in the courtyard of the maternity hospital of the Mariupol
Territorial Medical Association for Children’s and Women's Health, 09.03.22;
Photo 2: The crater from an aerial bomb at the entrance of a drama theatre in Mariupol, 10.03.22.

The destruction of the premises of the maternity hospital of the Mariupol Territorial Medical
Association for Children’s and Women's Health itself is simply catastrophic, in stark contrast
to the statements of the Russian representative to the UN.

What does international humanitarian law say about it?
Both military and civilian medical facilities, including maternity hospitals, are under the
special protection of international humanitarian law (IHL). This means that in addition to thegeneral rules on attacks against civilian objects, IHL offers a number of additional safeguards
aimed at minimising the risk of harm to medical facilities. Norms on the special protection ofsuch institutions are contained in the Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War
on Land or the Hague Regulations of 1899 (Article 27), Geneva Convention (I) of 1948 (Article19), Geneva Convention (IV) of 1948 (Article 18), Additional Protocol (I) to the Geneva
Conventions of 1977 (Article 12), as well as customary IHL. Additional protection of medical
institutions means that attacking them is prohibited in all cases. The use of such facilities formilitary purposes is also prohibited. The ban on attacks on medical institutions can be lifted
only if they are used outside their humanitarian functions to commit acts that harm the enemy.
Actions that are harmful to the enemy are interpreted in the comments to the Geneva
Conventions as including the hiding of combatants in a medical facility, the deployment of
weapons, the stationing of a military observation post, etc. However - and this follows directlyfrom the Geneva Conventions - the presence of armed guards on the territory of the medical
institution, the presence of combatants receiving medical care, the presence of small arms
and ammunition confiscated from the wounded and sick, and the possession of weapons by
medical personnel cannot be regarded as circumstances that lift the aforementioned
protection. Thus, not all instances of the presence of armed persons on the territory of a
medical institution removes the special protection provided by IHL.
Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 (Article 13) notes that even incases where the protection of medical institutions has ceased due to their use to harm theenemy, an attack is permitted only after a warning has been given which sets, wheneverappropriate, a reasonable time limit and only after such warning has remained unheeded.
An attack on a medical facility in violation of IHL is a war crime under the Rome Statuteof the ICC. Like Additional Protocol I, the Rome Statute indicates that the presence of armed
persons on the territory of or directly inside of a medical institution does not deprive it ofprotection if the function of such persons is to maintain order.
As argued above, the maternity hospital that was attacked was not used to harm theenemy. Even if combatants were stationed on its territory - something for which there iscurrently no evidence - this would not remove its special protection under IHL.
Statements by Russian officials both before and after the attack on the maternity hospitalconfirm the knowledge of Russian armed forces about the protected status of the facility. Thisknowledge did not stop them from carrying out the attack. It is also important to emphasisethat an attack on a specially protected facility such as a maternity hospital requires a high levelof confidence that the facility is being used for military purposes. This high level of confidence
in the use of the object of attack for military purposes by Russian officials could evidenty not
be formed due to the lack of any information about the military use of the maternity hospital insocial media groups and channels, which usually react very quickly to news of significant
events such as seizures of medical facilities. In addition, in his speech at the UN Security
Council, the Russian representative Nebenzya mentioned a different maternity hospital as one
that could have been used for military purposes, rather than the one that was attacked.

Accordingly, the leadership of the military units that organised the attack and its direct
perpetrators did not have an acceptable degree of confidence that the maternity hospital was
being used as a military facility.
Conclusion
It is obvious that no matter how desperately the Russian side seeks to justify theinhuman attack by its armed forces on the maternity hospital in Mariupol, two things remain
obvious: their manipulation of the facts and their lies about the reasons for the bombing.
Certainly, it is necessary to conduct a more in-depth investigation into all the circumstancesof this attack. However, at this stage, there are already more than sufficient grounds to claimthat the Russian side has committed a war crime, for which all those involved should be held
accountable.
Afterword
On the day of the attack on the maternity hospital of the Mariupol Territorial Medical
Association for Children’s and Women's Health, the Russian media began to spread thefollowing content, attributed to the head of the National Defence Management Centre of theRussian Federation, Mikhail Mizintsev:

Translation from Russian: "The children's hospital is used as a stronghold by the Sumy
Territorial Defence Unit,” Mizintsev said.
Thus, we see a certain pattern in Russia's actions and evidence that its militaryleadership has deliberately embarked on a path of terror against the civilian population andblackmail of the Ukrainian authorities.
Austrian military analyst Tom Cooper who has been studying Russian style of warfare
for many years posted on his facebook page on March 15: “In Syria, the VKS (Russian air
forces) hit over 100 medical facilities, most of these 3-4 times, for a total of 492 registered air
strikes on medical facilities. In Ukraine so far, it hit 18 medical facilities.
Because that’s the Russian way of fighting wars. It’s a part of strategy aiming to spreadterror, break morale, and prompt civilians to flee”25.

25
Tom Cooper, facebook, 15.03.22 at 13.13, available at:https://www.facebook.com/keksifarm.hayday/posts/3102522226685002