Despicable bombing of Ukraine hospital is a war crime, says UK defence minister

Mariupol city council said the Russian strike killed three people, including a child.

Armed forces minister James Heappey said the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol is a war crime (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) (AP)

The “despicable” bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine is a war crime committed by Russian troops, the UK’s armed forces minister has said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike in Mariupol was part of a “genocide” on his people.

Three people, including a child, were killed in the attack, according to the besieged city’s council.

Defence minister James Heappey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that UK intelligence believes the strike came from artillery rather than the air, but that Britain is “still looking at exactly (what happened)”.

The Army veteran said that, even if Russian troops did not deliberately target the medical complex, the attack – which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described as “depraved” – still amounts to a war crime.

Mr Heappey told BBC Breakfast: “We ask ourselves the question how did this happen? Was it an indiscriminate use of artillery or missiles into a built-up area, or was a hospital explicitly targeted?

“Both are equally despicable, both, as the Ukrainians have pointed out, would amount to a war crime.”

Pressed on whether he thinks the attack constitutes a war crime, he replied: “Yes, if you deliberately target a piece of civilian infrastructure like a hospital, yes.

“If you use indiscriminate artillery into an urban area without due regard for the reality, you could hit a protected site like a hospital, then that too, in my view, is.”

During a call with Mr Zelensky on Wednesday evening, Downing Street said the Prime Minister pointed out that the Mariupol bombing “was yet further evidence” that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “acting with careless disregard for international humanitarian law”.

As part of a bid to increase pressure on Mr Putin, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced on Twitter that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had been sanctioned in a UK Government move against “individuals linked to the Russian government”.

As the fighting entered a 15th day in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said Russia had confirmed the use of thermobaric rockets – often called vacuum bombs – on its neighbour.

Thermobaric weapons, which suck in oxygen to generate a powerful explosion, are not illegal but their use is strictly regulated, MoD said.

There are also fears among the West that Moscow could deploy chemical weapons as it looks to ground down Ukrainian resistance.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the world should be “on the lookout” for the Russian use of chemical and biological weaponry.

She said “Russia’s false claims” about alleged US biological weapons labs and chemical weapons development in Ukraine could be an “an obvious ploy” by the Kremlin to try to “justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine”.

With Foreign Secretary Liz Truss due to give a speech in Washington urging the West to re-think relations with “aggressors”, UK minister Mr Heappey warned Mr Putin that the use of chemical weapons had “triggered an international response” in the past.

He told Today their deployment was the “most despicable thing that anybody can imagine” and that the scenes being witnessed in Mariupol would be “nothing by comparison to the suffering and devastation that chemical weapons cause”.

His comments come with talks set to take place between Moscow and Kyiv foreign ministers in Turkey in what will be the highest-level discussions since the assault started last month.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has travelled to Estonia, along with shadow defence secretary John Healey, where they are set to meet with British troops serving as part of a Nato deployment in the eastern European country that shares a border with Russia.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow defence secretary John Healey leave the Ministry of Defence in Tallinn on Thursday (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

At home in Britain, it has been suggested that the Home Office could be about to bring in changes to make it easier for Ukrainian refugees to come to the UK.

Mr Johnson’s administration has come under pressure, including from Kyiv and his own Conservative MPs, to rapidly increase the rate of Ukrainians being welcomed into safety.

Despite more than 2.1 million people having fled Ukraine according to UN estimates, the latest figures from Downing Street say Britain has granted just 957 visas.

Defence minister Mr Heappey hinted that Home Secretary Priti Patel could back down to relax visa requirements for those fleeing the invasion.

He acknowledged that, with men staying behind to fight, most of those fleeing are women and children, but said Ms Patel must balance the “risk”.

“The Home Secretary is very much aware of the need to remove as much bureaucracy as she can but she does have to balance that against the risk and I know that she’ll make the right decision,” he told BBC Breakfast.

Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko, speaking on BBC’s Question Time on Wednesday, called for an end to the “bureaucratic red tape” restricting refugees from entering Britain.