Russian Tankers Guilty of Shelling Hospital
Some 70 medical staff and patients, including women in labour, were forced to shelter in building’s basement.
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Tuesday, 23 May ‘23
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Russian Tankers Guilty of Shelling Hospital
Some 70 medical staff and patients, including women in labour, were forced to shelter in building’s basement.
Two Russian officers have been found guilty of shelling a civilian hospital in the city of Trostyanets in Sumy region in March 2022.
Petr Smirnov, the junior sergeant and commander of a T-72 tank, and his subordinate gunner-operator Ainur Mukhametkhanov were sentenced in absentia to 11 years on May 9. The Trostyanets district court convicted both men under Part 1 of article 438 of the criminal code on the violation of the laws and customs of war.
Smirnov, 23, and 22-year-old Mukhametkhanov - both natives of the Republic of Tatarstan of the Russian Federation - are soldiers with the Chertkivskyi tank regiment, military unit 58198 of the 2nd Guards Taman motorised rifle division.
On February 24, 2022, they crossed into Ukraine on the border section with the Sumy region. By that afternoon, they had already reached the territory of the city of Trostyanets and occupied it until its liberation by Ukrainian forces on March 26. After the Russian army left, the city bore evidence of widespread destruction including shelled buildings and a cemetery that had been mined.
The investigation found that on March 18, Smirnov ordered operator-gunner Mukhametzhanov to fire point-blank at the city hospital building. Mukhametkhanov executed the order.
As a result of the shelling, damage was sustained to the wall of the inpatient building as well as to the flight of stairs between the second and third floors of the hospital. The cost was estimated at 140,000 hryvnias (3,800 US dollars). There were about 70 medical workers and patients in the building at the time, including pregnant women. According to the State Bureau of Investigation, at the very moment of the attack, one female patient was giving birth to twins.
When they fled Trostyanets, Smirnov and Mukhametkhanov abandoned their damaged tank, painted with a number 9.
Investigators examined it before the vehicle was repaired and handed over to the Ukrainian military. During the inspection of the tank, Ukrainian investigators found Smirnov's documents in the commander's seat such as his military ID, bank cards and medical records including his Covid-19 vaccination certificate.
At the trial, the prosecution's witnesses were hospital employees including a driver, the head of the obstetrics department, an anesthesiologist, and nurses.
They all told the court that on that day before the shooting, they were in various locations in the hospital performing their duties when they heard a loud rumble. According to the testimony of the driver, it sounded like a diesel engine. The witnesses then saw a tank approaching the hospital. It first drove through the hospital parking lot and then through an arboretum before reaching the barriers that marked the territory of the hospital. After that, the muzzle of the gun turned towards the building and almost immediately the witnesses heard a loud shot. The tank was between 150-300 metres from the hospital.
During a reconstruction at the site of the hospital, the driver pointed out the place where he saw how the tank, standing on the lawn in front of the hospital, began to turn the turret. At that moment, the witness ran to the basement. When he reached the middle of the stairs, a shot hit the hospital building.
Other witnesses for the prosecution, including the hospital’s medical director, the head of surgery and a woman who had been in labour in the maternity ward that day, confirmed that they had heard calls from staff to go down to the basement as a tank was approaching. They all then heard a loud gunshot.
Immediately after the shelling, water flooded the hospital from a damaged heating pipe.
They then spent several hours in the basement, only emerging late in the evening.
The court also questioned a resident of an apartment building opposite the hospital. From her flat on the third floor on the evening in question, she said she had seen an infantry fighting vehicle drive up from which about ten soldiers wearing red armbands got out. About ten minutes later, a large tank painted with the number 9 arrived. Until that point, she said, no military equipment had entered that part of the city. When the tank stopped, the witness said that three people got out. The Russian soldiers inspected the area near the building, then got into the vehicles again and drove towards the hospital through a grove of trees, knocking down barriers. After that, the witness heard a loud shot. The woman said that as it was not yet dark outside she looked out of the window and had a clear view of the two soldiers from the tank who were standing facing in her direction. One soldier was taller, thin, with light hair, and the other was short, looked of Buryat ethnicity and had a mole on his face. During the pre-trial investigation, she was presented with photographs for identification, among which she recognised the two defendants. Other witnesses did not see the faces of the Russian soldiers.
The announcement of suspicion in absentia to Smirnov and Mukhametkhanov mentioned that there were three soldiers in the tank crew, including 22-year-old mechanic-driver Alexey Yeldyrev. However he was not included in the charges.
The witnesses also told the court that white flags with a red cross were placed at the entrance to the hospital building and near the reception department. A road sign also made clear that this was a civilian medical facility where no military personnel were located. In addition, witnesses told the court that the Russian military knew where the hospital was, because in the first days of the invasion they brought a wounded woman there for treatment.
The examination found that the hospital was shelled with a single shot of a high-explosive fragmentation projectile from a 125-mm tank gun. The court examined a journal listing the military personnel of the 752 tank, found on the floor of the vehicle’s inner compartment. This listed Smirnov as the commander and Mukhametkhanov as the gunner-operator. The document also contained their dates of birth, educational background, place and time of conscription, all data consistent with that of the passport system of the Russian Federation.
Lawyers acting for the Russian tankers asked the court to acquit their clients on the basis that it was unproven by the prosecution that Smirnov and Mukhametkhanov had committed the crime. The defence team pointed to a lack of evidence that the defendants were part of the crew of the tank which fired on the hospital, or that it was Smirnov who gave the order to Mukhametkhanov who then fired the shot. According to the defence, the documents found in the tank were not enough to conclude that the accused committed the crime, and the witnesses, being in the hospital at the time of the shelling, could not have seen the faces of the soldiers.
Nonetheless, the court found Smirnov and Mukhametkhanov guilty of violating the laws and customs of war based on a previous conspiracy by a group of people. The term of their sentence will be counted from the moment of their detention and enter into force after the expiry of the period for submitting an appeal, if such an appeal is not filed.
The court also satisfied the civil claim of the Trostyanets hospital for compensation and decided to collect 140,214 hryvnias (3,800 dollars) from the Russian state.
