On March 14, 2022, Russian forces carried out an airstrike on Chernihiv Polytechnic National University, resulting in significant damage to the campus.

The early morning airstrike came a little over two weeks into Russia’s invasion into and war against Ukraine. Available sources do not indicate whether anyone was killed or injured in the attack.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about the apparently targeted destruction of university facilities in armed conflict. Parties to a conflict may only attack legitimate military targets. Where a party suspects that a civilian facility — such as a university building — is being used for military purposes, that party has a duty to take every action practicable to verify that this suspicion is correct before initiating an attack. In the event of such an attack, parties must take all practicable precautions to avoid or minimize damage to civilian facilities. Further, parties must refrain from launching attacks which may be expected to cause disproportionate damage to civilian facilities.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).
https://en.lb.ua/news/2022/03/14/10984_occupiers_destroyed.html
https://day.kyiv.ua/ru/news/140322-agressor-nanes-aviaudar-po-chernigovskomu-politehnicheskomu-universitetu-vyacheslav
https://www.facebook.com/chepolytech/posts/2675016782642016
https://www.facebook.com/chepolytech/posts/2696805050463189
https://www.facebook.com/chepolytech/photos/pcb.2698216100322084/2698209056989455/
Ukrainian News Agency report (archived)