Russia attacked monastery near the Svyatogorsk Lavra

Date of the event

12.03.2022

Venue

Svyatogorsk, Donetsk region

On March 12, at 10.00 p.m., a raid on the Saint Mary’s Dormition Lavra took place. An air bomb exploded 50 meters from the bridge connecting the right and left banks of the Seversky Donets River, where the monastery is located. Due to the force of the explosion, all windows and doors were shattered. Some of the wounded were taken to the hospital in Sviatohirsk, the rest were cared for on the spot. Fortunately, no one was killed. On the night of March 12-13, all refugees and brothers were evacuated to the monastery cellars.

Legal qualification

in accordance with Art. 8 sec. 2(b)(i) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, adopted on 17 July 1998 at Rome; With regard to war crimes, the above incident is a war crime that can be classified as other serious violations of the laws and customs of international law applicable to armed conflicts of an international character, namely: (ix) Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives; (i) Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities; (ii) Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;