Mariupol, destruction of heritage and incitement to genocide. The UN Commission has released a new report on Russian war crimes in Ukraine

The UNʼs independent international commission to investigate violations in Ukraine has issued another report with evidence that the Russian government and its troops committed war crimes in the occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as violated international and humanitarian law.

The report describes indiscriminate Russian attacks on civilians, events in the city of Mariupol, destruction of hospitals and cultural heritage sites, systematic torture, rape and torture of prisoners of war. The commission confirms its previous conclusion that the number of such attacks shows the regularity of Russian armed forces ignoring the task of harming the civilian population.

Siege of Mariupol

From February 24, 2022 (the beginning of the attack on the city) to May 20, 2022 (full occupation), 15 555 buildings were damaged by shelling and airstrikes in Mariupol, of which 831 were completely destroyed.

Residents told how houses collapsed under shelling, and people died under the ruins. Two residents, for example, witnessed tanks firing at civilian houses. One woman told how an airstrike hit a nearby nine-story building, and people who lived there jumped out of the windows. The streets of the city were covered with the bodies of civilians. One of the witnesses saw a corridor and three wards in the hospital littered with bodies.

Fighting in the city damaged or destroyed at least 58 medical infrastructure buildings. The commission has data on how on March 13, 2022, a Russian T-72 tank fired at Hospital No. 2, which resulted in civilian casualties. The commission concluded that this attack was indiscriminate and a war crime.

There is also data on the Russian airstrike on maternity hospital No. 3, which took place on March 9, 2022, and numerous testimonies of people about the large number of wounded and dead in hospitals.

Some residents witnessed Russian combat vehicles and soldiers shooting at civilians trying to leave the city.

The commission received data on the "cleansing" of the occupied districts of the city. During this process, the Russian military intimidated people, shot at them, and forced them out of their shelters into areas under their control. People had to pass through filtration points.

Shelling

According to the Commission, as of February 15, 2024, 8 898 civilians were killed and another 18 818 were injured from missile, drone, and artillery attacks. The actual number of victims is higher.

The commission calls the missile attack on the village of Hroza in the Kharkiv region tragic, when 36 women, 22 men and one child were killed when an Iskander hit a cafe during a memorial service. The commission does not indicate who launched the missile.

The massive missile attack on December 29, 2023, when 55 people died and more than 170 Ukrainians were injured, is separately mentioned. The commission indicates that the next day there was an attack on the center of Belgorod, Russia, where 25 people died. The Commission does not name those responsible for the shelling.

The report gives examples of indiscriminate attacks on civilian infrastructure (houses, cafes, medical facilities, warehouses) in Kryvyi Rih, Kramatorsk, and Slovyansk. The commission came to the conclusion that this is an attack by Russian forces and it violates international and humanitarian law.

Attacks on cultural objects

The commission investigated the shelling of the historic center of Odesa in July 2023, when 29 cultural objects were damaged, and the attack on the historic center of Lviv in the same month. World Heritage sites were damaged by the Russians.

Illegal appropriation of cultural values

The commission documented two cases of theft of artifacts from museums in Kherson and the region — starting from the end of October 2022 to the beginning of November 2022, during the last days of the occupation of the city of Kherson, the Russian authorities removed cultural values from the Kherson Regional Art Museum and archival documents from the State Archives of the Kherson Region to the occupied Crimea.

According to the estimates of employees of both institutions, more than 10 000 objects were stolen from the museum and 70% of documents from the main building of the State Archives. Several local authorities appointed by the Russian Federation publicly confirmed this, saying that valuables had been evacuated.

Murder, torture and rape

The commission investigated the execution of four civilian men aged 38 to 52 in the village of Novopetrivka (Mykolaiv region), who were detained by the Russian military on suspicion of aiding the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It established that they were shot, and before that they were tortured.

The commission documented numerous systematic tortures of Ukrainians in the Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine and in the Belgorod, Kursk and Tula regions of Russia, where they were taken or deported. There is evidence of excessively brutal torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kursk Prison No. 1, Stary Oskol Prison No. 2, Valuyka Correctional Colony No. 6, and Donsky Correctional Colony No. 1. Prisoners were tortured by employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation, prison guards and employees of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Former prisoners testified about threats of rape, insults, beatings, and mutilations.

The Commission has data on the torture of civilians by FSB officers in Melitopol and Kherson.

The commission describes four cases of rape of three women and a 15-year-old girl by Russian soldiers in Kyiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022. In two cases, the circumstances indicate that the women were subjected to sexual violence as punishment for supporting the Ukrainian authorities and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

They were raped several times, in some cases by a group, mercilessly beaten, and one of the victims was raped with a rubber stick, after which they were forced to dig trenches.

Incitement to genocide

The commission considered allegations that raise issues under the Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide. In particular, does the rhetoric broadcast by Russian state and other mass media constitute direct and public incitement to genocide. The commission saw numerous public statements that used dehumanizing language and called for hatred, violence and destruction. The Commission is concerned and recommends further investigation.

In its conclusions, the Commission recommends that Russia immediately stop aggression against Ukraine, ratify international documents, ensure the protection of civilians, comply with international law, and much more. In total, the report contains 12 points of recommendations for Russia.