Bombing of Ukrainian maternity hospital "a war crime"

The Russian bombing of the maternity ward in Mariupol is said by Mariupol city council to have killed three people, including a child.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike in Mariupol was part of a “genocide” on his people and Boris Johnson described the attack as "depraved".

Defence minister James Heappey spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and said UK intelligence believes the strike to have come from artillery rather than from the Russian air force, but the UK is “still looking at exactly (what happened)”.

Mr Heappey said that even if the ward was not specifically targeted, the action 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.”

When asked if he would classify the act as a war crime, Mr Heappey said: "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."

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