In what appears to be at least a partial vindication of Russian accusations that the forces of the Kiev regime use civilians as human shields, a UN report on the attack on a nursing home in on March 11 in eastern Lugansk blames Ukraine as much as it does Russia. A few days before the attack, Ukrainian soldiers took up positions inside the nursing home, effectively making the building a target, reports Reuters.
At least 22 of the 71 patients survived the assault, but the exact number of people killed remains unknown, according to the United Nations. The report by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights doesn’t conclude that the Ukrainian soldiers or the Russian troops committed a war crime, but it said the battle at the Stara Krasnyanka nursing home is emblematic of the human rights office’s concerns over the potential use of “human shields” to prevent military operations in certain areas.
“The bottom-line rule is that civilians cannot intentionally be targeted. Period. For whatever reason,” David Crane, a former Defense Department official and a veteran of numerous international war crimes investigations, told Reuters. “The Ukrainians placed those people in a situation which was a killing zone. And you can’t do that.” This appears to be the first time that such a statement made it into the corporate media with regard to Ukrainian conduct since the Feb. 24 start of the Russian special military operation. To be sure, Crane considers the Russians the original sinners, “But everybody is accountable to the law and the laws of armed conflict,” he said. AP and PBS Frontline reported this story as well.
Meanwhile, in his daily statement issued yesterday, Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, reported several examples of Ukrainian armed formations using houses, educational institutions and other social facilities for their military purposes. To give two examples:
• “in Zaliznoye, Donetsk People’s Republic, militants of the nationalist Aidar battalion are stationed in school No. 13 (Petrovskogo Street), with roadblocks and firing points set up on the approaches to the building, while local residents from nearby houses are not evacuated and are actually used by nationalists as human shields";
• “in Kharkov, Ukrainian nationalists have equipped firing positions and ammunition depots on the lower and upper floors of apartment buildings (Yubileynyi prospect), local residents are not allowed to leave their flats and any attempts by citizens to evacuate to safer areas are harshly suppressed.”
Mizintsev also denied claims being made by the Kiev regime that foreign vessels in the port of Mariupol are being confiscated by D.P.R. offices, with the backing of Russia, “to create a national fleet...”
“The Ukrainian side continues to attempt to discredit the actions of the Russian Federation in restoring the territories it has liberated and accuse D.P.R. of violating international maritime law with regard to foreign-flagged vessels in Mariupol port,” he said. “Once again, this is untrue.”
