Leonard Rubenstein, a lawyer who oversees Johns Hopkins University's Program on Human Rights, Health and Conflict, told Fox News on Friday that a series of alleged Russian attacks on Ukrainian hospitals and medical staff may amount to war crimes.
The statement comes as reports circulate that at least one Russian cluster munition strike hit a Ukrainian hospital, killing four and injuring ten.
"There were two children, I believe, who were killed and two others, and six injured because of the explosive force of the bomb," Rubenstein said.
Rubenstein referenced the first Geneva Convention of 1864, which outlawed assaults on medical personnel during war.
"The law is very simple and clear and goes back 150 years — that it's illegal to attack a hospital, a patient, medical staff," he said. "In fact, they're war crimes."
The lawyer emphasized that Russia has employed similar tactics in the past during the post-Soviet Chechen Wars and the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
"Russia has a long history of attacking hospitals," Rubenstein claimed. "They did it in Chechnya, attacked multiple hospitals in the capital during the war there 20 years ago."
"More recently, in Syria, they targeted hospitals in Idlib, in the northwest, in Aleppo and destroyed many hospitals," he added.
Rubenstein said that there is a possibility the claims in Ukraine could be investigated by the International Criminal Court of the United Nations, which is not subject to a Security Council veto where Russia maintains a vote.
"The pattern of indiscriminate attacks amounts to a war crime just as a deliberate attack is," Rubenstein said. "So, if these are confirmed after investigation — and of course, we don't have those investigations yet — they could be war crimes."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.