By 2009, theEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued 115 verdicts (including the verdict in theBaysayeva v. Russia case) in which it found the Russian government guilty of perpetratingenforced disappearances,murder,torture, and failing to properly investigate these crimes in Chechnya.[21] In 2021, the ECHR also separately found Russia guilty of murder, torture,looting and destruction of homes in Georgia, as well as preventing the return of 20,000 displaced Georgians to their territory.[22][23][24]
After theRusso-Turkish War (1877–1878), the area aroundKars was ceded to Russia. This resulted in a large number of Muslims leaving and settling in remaining Ottoman lands.Batum and its surrounding area was also ceded to Russia causing many local Turkish andGeorgian Muslims to migrate to the west "as a result of persecution, or fear of persecution, by Christian Russians."[29]
In the 1990s and 2000s, war crimes trials held in the Baltic states led to the prosecution of some Russians, mostlyin absentia, for crimes against humanity committed during or shortly after World War II, including killings or deportations of civilians. Today, theRussian government engages inhistorical negationism.[35] Russian media refers to the Soviet crimes against humanity and war crimes as a "Western myth".[36] InRussian history textbooks, the atrocities are either altered to portray the Soviets positively or omitted entirely.[37] In 2017, Russian presidentVladimir Putin, himself awar crime fugitive since 2023, while acknowledging the "horrors ofStalinism", criticized the "excessivedemonization of Stalin" by "Russia's enemies".[38]
Following thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991,Chechnya declared its independence. Russian officials refused to recognize Chechnya's declaration of independence, sparking tensions. These tensions ultimately escalated intoa full-scale war when 25,000 Russian soldiers crossed into Chechnya on 11 December 1994.[39] The war ended withde facto Chechen independence and a Russian troop withdrawal in 1996. However, tensions between Russia and Chechnya still existed and they continued to escalate until the second war broke out in 1999, and Russia wagedcounterinsurgency until 2009. It was concluded when Russia took full control of Chechnya and installed a pro-Russian government. Numerous war crimes were committed, most of them were committed by theRussian armed forces.[40][41] Some scholars has estimated that the brutality of the Russian attacks on such a small ethnic group amounts to a crime ofgenocide.[42][43]
During the two wars, theChechens weredehumanized andRussian propaganda depicted them as "blacks", "bandits", "terrorists", "cockroaches" and "bedbugs". The Russian armed forces perpetrated numerous war crimes.[44]
Throughout the First Chechen War,human rights organizations accused Russian forces of starting a brutal war with total disregard forinternational humanitarian law, causing tens of thousands of unnecessary civilian casualties among the Chechen population. The main strategy in the Russian war effort was to use heavy artillery and air strikes, leading to numerousindiscriminate attacks on civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, the campaign was "unparalleled in the area since World War II for its scope and destructiveness, followed by months of indiscriminate and targeted fire against civilians".[45]
The crimes included the use of prohibitedcluster bombs in the1995 Shali cluster bomb attack, which targeted a market, a gas station and a hospital,[46][47][48] and the April 1995Samashki massacre, in which it is estimated that up to 300 civilians died during the attack.[49] Russian forces conducted an operation ofzachistka, house-by-house searches throughout the entire village. Federal soldiers deliberately and arbitrarily attacked civilians and civilian dwellings inSamashki by shooting residents and burning houses withflame-throwers. They wantonly opened fire or threwgrenades into basements where residents, mostly women, elderly persons and children, had been hiding.[50] Russian troops intentionally burned many bodies, either by throwing the bodies into burning houses or by setting them on fire.[51]
During theFirst Battle of Grozny, Russianair raids and artillery bombardments were described as the heaviest bombing campaign in Europe since thedestruction of Dresden.[52] The Russian historian and generalDmitri Volkogonov said the Russian military's bombardment of Grozny killed around 35,000 civilians, including 5,000 children.[53] This has led to Western and Chechen sources describing the Russian strategy as deliberateterror bombing.[54] The bloodbath of Grozny shocked Russia and the outside world, causing severe criticism of the war. International monitors from theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) described the scenes as nothing short of an "unimaginable catastrophe", while former Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev called the war a "disgraceful, bloody adventure" and German chancellorHelmut Kohl called it "sheer madness".[55]
In a March 1996 report, theUnited Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) accused Russian troops of firing on civilians and killing them atcheckpoints and of summarily executing captured Chechen men, both civilians and fighters.[41] Two cases involved Russian soldiers murderinghumanitarian aid workers who tried to save a civilian from execution on a street inGrozny.Russian Ministry of Interior forces officers fired into a group of soldiers who refused to kill the civilian population.[41]
Russian troops burying corpses in a mass grave in Chechnya during the Second Chechen WarA building damaged during the war in Grozny
The Second Chechen War, which began in 1999, was even more brutal than the previous war.[56][57] According to human rights activists, Russian troops systematically committed the following crimes in Chechnya: the destruction of cities and villages, not justified by military necessity; shelling and bombardment of unprotected settlements; summary extrajudicial executions and killings of civilians; torture, ill-treatment and infringement of human dignity; serious bodily harm intentionally inflicted on persons not directly participating in hostilities; deliberate strikes against the civilian population, civilian and medical vehicles; illegal detentions of the civilian population; enforced disappearances; looting and destruction of civilian and public property; extortion; taking hostages for ransom; corpse trade.[58][59][60] There were also rapes,[61][62][63] which, along with women, were also subjected to men.[64][65][66][67][68][69]
Some of the crimes committed towards the civilian population included the following: 1999Elistanzhi cluster bomb attack against civilians, leaving mostly women and children dead.[70][71] TheGrozny ballistic missile attack, in which ten hypersonic missiles fell without warning and targeted the city's only maternity hospital, post office, mosque, and a crowded market.[72][73][74] The casualties occurred at the central market, and the attack is estimated to have killed over 100 instantly and injured up to 400 others. TheRussian Air Force perpetrated repeated rocket attacks on a large convoy of refugees trying to enterIngushetia through a supposed "safe exit" during theBaku–Rostov highway bombing.[75] This was repeated in December 1999 when Russian soldiersopened fire on a refugee convoy marked with white flags.[76]
During theAlkhan-Yurt massacre where Russian soldiers went on a murdering spree throughout the village and summarily executing, raping, torturing, looting, burning and killing anyone in their way. Nearly all the killings were committed by Russian soldiers who were looting.[77] Civilian attempts to stop the madness were often met with death.[78] There has been no serious attempt conducted by the Russian authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the crimes committed at Alkhan-Yurt. Credible testimony suggests that Russian leadership in the region had knowledge of what was happening and simply chose to ignore it.[77] Russian military leadership dismissed the incident as "fairy tales", claiming that the bodies were planted and the slaughter fabricated in order to damage the reputation of Russian troops.[79] Russian generalVladimir Shamanov dismissed accountability for the abuses in the village saying "Don't you dare touch the soldiers and officers of the Russian army. They are doing a sacred thing today – they are defending Russia. And don't you dare sully the Russian soldier with your dirty hands!"[77]
Dead Chechen soldier
In what is regarded as one of the gravestwar crimes in the war, Russian federal forces went on a village-sweep (zachistka), that involvedsummary executions of dozens of people,murder,looting,arson andrape of Chechen civilians in what is known as theNovye Aldi massacre.[80][81][82] Russian troops hadcluster-bombed the village a day prior before entering the village, telling local residents to come out from their cellars for inspection the next day.[83] Upon entering the village, Russian soldiers shot their victims in cold blood, with automatic fire at close range. Victims ranged from one-year-old babies to an 82 year old woman. Victims were asked for money or jewelry by Russian soldiers, which served as a pretext for their execution if the amount was insufficient. Federal soldiers removed gold teeth from their victims and looted their corpses. Killings were accompanied byarson in an attempt to destroy evidence ofsummary executions and other civilian killings. There were several cases of rape. In one incident, Russian soldiersgang raped several women beforestrangling them to death. Pillage on a massive scale took place in the village, with Russian soldiers stripping the houses of civilians in broad daylight. Any attempt to make the Russian authorities take responsibilities for the massacre resulted in indignant denial.Human Rights Watch described the Russian authorities' response as "typical". A spokesperson from theRussian Ministry of Defence declared that "these assertions are nothing but a concoction not supported by fact or any proof ... [and] should be seen as a provocation whose goal is to discredit the federal forces' operation against the terrorists in Chechnya".[83][81] An eye-witness also said that investigators from theFederal Security Service told her the massacre was probably committed by Chechen fighters "disguised as federal troops".[84]
A Chechen woman with a wounded child
During theStaropromyslovsky massacre between December 1999 and January 2000, Russian soldiers went on an apparentspree, rounding up civilians andsummarily executing them.[85][86] The crimes included widespread looting and arson. Victims included the entire nine-member family of the Zubayevs, which had reportedly been shot dead in the street by a heavy submachine gun (most likely from an armored vehicle).[87] In one incident, Russian soldiers fired at civilians hiding in a cellar. According to a survivor of the incident, upon having yelled out to the soldiers, "Please don't shoot us, we are local civilians", the soldiers ordered them to come out of the cellar with their hands up. After coming out of the cellar, the Russian soldiers ordered them back down, after which they threw down several hand grenades at the civilians. The survivors were then again ordered back out of the cellar, after which the Russian soldiers shot the survivors with machine gun fire at close range.[85][87][86] The massacre went unpunished and unacknowledged by the Russian authorities.
The1999–2000 siege and bombardments of Grozny caused tens of thousands of civilians to perish.[88] The Russian army issued an ultimatum during the siege urging Chechens to leave the city or be destroyed without mercy.[89] Around 300 people were killed while trying to escape in October 1999 and subsequently buried in a mass grave.[90] TheRussian president Putin vowed that the military would not stop bombing Grozny until Russian troops "fulfilled their task to the end". In 2003, theUnited Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth.[91] The bombing of Grozny included banned Buratino thermobaric and fuel-air bombs, igniting the air of civilians hiding in basements.[92][93] There were also reports of the use of chemical weapons, banned by theGeneva Protocol and theChemical Weapons Convention.[94]
International humanitarian workers are reported to have been killed by Russian soldiers during the war in Chechnya. On 17 December 1996, six delegates of theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were killed in an attack by masked gunmen at the ICRC hospital inNovye Atagi, near Grozny.[95] In 2010, Russian special forces officer Major Aleksi Potyomkin claimed that the murders were perpetrated byFSB agents.[96] A 2004 report identified Russian soldiers usingrape as means of torture against the Chechens.[97] Out of 428 villages in Chechnya, 380 were bombed in the conflicts, leaving a 70% destruction of households behind.[98]
Amnesty International estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 civilians have been killed in the First Chechen War alone, mostly byindiscriminate attacks by Russian forces on densely populated areas,[99] and that a further 25,000 civilians died in the Second Chechen War.[100] Another source assumes that 40,000–45,000 civilians were killed in the second conflict.[101] Meanwhile, in 1996, the then Russian National Security chiefAleksandr Lebed said that 80,000 people died in the first war.[102] Combined with the military forces, historians estimate that up to a tenth of the entire Chechen population died in the first war,[103] 100,000 people out of a million.[104] Conservative estimates assume that at least 100,000–150,000 people died in the two conflicts.[105] Higher estimates by Chechen officials and nationals assume that up to 200,000–300,000 died in the two wars.[106][107]
Following a 7 August 2008 escalation between thebreak-away region ofSouth Ossetia andGeorgia, the Russian forces crossed the international border on 8 August and attacked Georgian soldiers in support of South Ossetia.[110][111][112] Russian soldiers also crossed into the other break-away region ofAbkhazia, even though no fighting was recorded there. The war ended on 12 August with a ceasefire brokered by international diplomats. The Russian government recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries, though some scholars described that the two regions actually became Russianprotectorates.[113]
HRW reported that no proof of intentional attacks on non-combatants by Georgian troops had been discovered.[114]
Russia deliberately attacked fleeing civilians in South Ossetia and theGori district of Georgia.[5] Russian warplanes bombed civilian population centres in Georgia proper and villages of ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia.[5] Armed militias engaged inplundering,burning andkidnappings. Attacks by militias compelled Georgian civilians to run away.[5]
The use ofcluster bombs by the Russians caused fatalities among civilians.[115] Amnesty International accused Russia of deliberately bombarding and attacking civilian areas and infrastructure, which is a war crime.[6] Russia denied using cluster bombs.[116] 228 Georgian civilians perished in the conflict.[112]
Following the2014 Ukrainian revolution, the pro-RussianUkrainian President,Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and fled to Russia, and the new Ukrainian government adopted a pro-European perspective. Russia proceeded to invade andannex Crimea, which was declared illegal by theUN General Assembly in itsresolution 68/262,[119] while pro-Russian separatists declared theunrecognized quasi-stateNovorossiya, intending a secession from Ukraine, and an insurgency which eventually led to the war inDonbas, the eastern parts ofUkraine. While Russia denied its involvement in the war in Donbas, numerous pieces of evidence pointed to its support of the pro-Russian separatists.Amnesty International accused Russia of "fuelling separatist crimes" and it called upon "all parties, including Russia, to stop their violations of the laws of war".[8]
The Russians widely use torture against captured Ukrainians (both military and civilians, which is a war crime). One of the first recorded cases of torture of prisoners of war in Ukraine was an incident on 7 October 2014 in the city ofZuhres (Donetsk region), when 53-year-old Ukrainian Ihor Kozhoma, who was trying to take his wife out of the occupied territory, was tied to a column and tortured for several hours by Russians and local separatists.[120][121] A similar case was withDonetsk civilian residentIryna Dovhan who was publicly tortured for her pro-Ukrainian position in August 2014.[122][123]
Damaged building inLysychansk, 2014Damaged building inKurakhove, 26 November 2014
Human Rights Watch stated that pro-Russian insurgents "failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid deploying in civilian areas" and in one case "actually moved closer to populated areas as a response to government shelling".[124] HRW called on all sides to stop using the "notoriously imprecise"Grad rockets.[124]
Another report by Human Rights Watch said that the insurgents had been "running amok ... taking, beating and torturing hostages, as well as wantonly threatening and beating people who are pro-Kiev".[125] It also said that the insurgents had destroyed medical equipment, threatened medical staff, and occupied hospitals. A member of Human Rights Watch witnessed the exhumation of a "mass grave" inSloviansk that was uncovered after insurgents retreated from the city.[125]
Insurgents with bayonet-equipped automatic rifles in the city of Donetsk paraded captured Ukrainian soldiers through the streets on 24 August, theIndependence Day of Ukraine.[126][127] During the parade, Russian nationalistic songs were played from loudspeakers, and members of the crowd jeered at the prisoners with epithets like "fascist".Street cleaning machines followed the protesters, "cleansing" the ground they were paraded on.[126] Human Rights Watch said that this was in clear violation of the common article 3 of theGeneva Conventions. The article forbids "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment". They further said that the parade "may be considered a war crime".[126]
A mural of Ukrainian soldiers and police officers who died "defending Ukrainian unity" in Kyiv
A map of human rights violations committed by the separatists, called the "Map of Death", was published by theSecurity Service of Ukraine (SBU) in October 2014.[128][129][130] The reported violations included detention camps and mass graves. Subsequently, on 15 October, theSBU opened a case on "crimes against humanity" perpetrated by insurgent forces.[131]
A mid-October report by Amnesty International documented cases ofsummary executions by pro-Russian forces.[132] A report by Human Rights Watch documented use ofcluster munitions by anti-government forces.[133]
Amnesty International reported that it had found "new evidence" ofsummary killings of Ukrainian soldiers on 9 April 2015. Having reviewed video footage, it determined that at least four Ukrainian soldiers had been shot dead "execution style". AI deputy director for Europe and Central Asia Denis Krivosheev said that "the new evidence of these summary killings confirms what we have suspected for a long time".[136] Amnesty also said that a recording released by theKyiv Post of a man, allegedly separatist leaderArseny Pavlov, claiming to have killed fifteen Ukrainian prisoners of war was a "chilling confession", and that it highlighted "the urgent need for an independent investigation into this and all other allegations of abuses".[136][137] In 2017, HRW declared that Russia ispersecuting Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea, and subjecting them toenforced disappearances.[138] Russia's actions in Ukraine have been described ascrimes against peace and crimes against humanity (Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot down).[139]
In 2019, the Ukrainian government considered 7% ofUkraine's territory to be under occupation.[140] TheUnited Nations General Assembly resolution A/73/L.47, adopted on 17 December 2018, mostly concurred and designated Crimea as under "temporary occupation".[141] Nevertheless, Ukraine failed to take any military action against the invasion of Crimea and opted for an approach of appeasement, ignoring Ukrainian citizens living there suffering under the Russian occupation.[142]
The United Nations recorded that the war claimed the lives of over 3,000 civilians by 2018.[143]
On 24 February 2022, Russian forcesinvaded and attacked Ukraine from the north, south and east, which was interpreted as a form ofRussian irredentism.[144][145] The Russian invasion became the deadliest European war in the last 80 years.[146] HRW and Amnesty International accused Russia of using imprecisecluster munitions in civilian areas, including near hospitals and schools, which constitute unlawful attacks with weapons that indiscriminately kill and maim.[147][148] The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned Russia's military action as a violation of international law.[149] Amnesty International labeled it anact of aggression that is a crime under international law.[9] Numerous war crimes were recorded, including murder or willful killings, torture,persecution,deportation orforced transfer,looting,rape against Ukrainian women,terror,enforced disappearance,starvation, attacks on civilians,unlawful airstrikes or attacks against civilian objects, wanton destruction not justified by military necessity including that of protected objects such as hospitals and cultural property,arbitrary detention, forceful conscription of nationals of the hostile party to take part in the operations of war directed against their own country, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment ofPOWs.[150]
Russian forces' widespread and repeated targeting of Ukraine's energy infrastructure appears primarily designed to instill terror among the population in violation of the laws of war.
Among the targets of Russian airstrikes was Ukraine's capitalKyiv, a city of some 3 million people.[152] Kindergartens and orphanages were also shelled.[153] Russian forces were accused of a campaign ofterror against Ukrainians.[151][154] On 3 March 2022, Russian forces were reportedlylooting acrossKherson[155] and selling stolen Ukrainian grain on the world market to finance the war.[156] During theSiege of Mariupol, the city was destroyed by shelling and cut off from electricity, food and water. A 6-year-old girl was reported to have died fromdehydration under the ruins of her home in Mariupol on 8 March.[157] During theassault on Irpin, the Russian forcesindiscriminately fired at refugees trying to flee across a collapsed bridge. A family of four was killed by a mortar strike.[158][159]
During theBattle of Kharkiv, the city was destroyed by Russian shelling, including a boarding school for blind people. Out of a population of 1.8 million, only 500,000 people remained in Kharkiv by 7 March 2022.[160] On 28 February 2022, aRussian cluster bomb attack killed 9 civilians and wounded 37 more in Kharkiv.[161][162] On 3 March,47 civilians were killed in Chernihiv, most of whom were standing in line at a food store, waiting for bread, when a Russian air strike with eightunguided aerial bombs hit them.[163] In theMariupol hospital airstrike, three people were killed, including a young girl;[164] whereas hundreds died in theMariupol theatre airstrike, used as anair raid shelter.[165] Following the withdrawal of Russian forces from theE-40 highway around the Kyiv area, BBC News discovered 13 dead bodies left lying on the road, only two wearing Ukrainian military uniforms. The evidence points to Russian soldiers killing these fleeing civilians.[166]
After the Russian forces left the area ofBucha after a month of occupation, on 1–3 April photos and videos emerged showing hundreds of killed people lying on the streets or in mass graves. The event triggered an international response as it was widely covered by journalists as theBucha massacre.[167]
The body of the 4-year-old girl Liza Dmitrieva (left) and the severed part of her mother's leg (right) after the Russianmissile strike on Vinnytsia in July 2022. Liza became one of the symbols of Russian atrocities in Ukraine.[168]
Thousands of civilians were killed by Russia's indiscriminate shelling and missiles strikes against civilian areas: inBorordianka,[169]Kramatorsk,[170]Vinnytsia,[171]Chasiv Yar,[172]Serhiivka,[173] and others. A Ukrainian official said that Russia is using mobile crematoriums to dispose of bodies in Mariupol in an attempt to cover up evidence of war crimes and hide the number of people that have died.[174] On 7 May 2022, theBilohorivka school bombing killed dozens of people sheltering in the basement.[175]Odesa was bombed continuously for months.[176] On 15 June 2022, OHCHR expressed concerns over reports that Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia, where they were being sent for rushed adoption, stating that these "do not appear to include steps for family reunification or respect the best interests of the child".UNICEF similarly declared that "adoptions should never occur during or immediately after emergencies".[177]
The people of Ukraine have suffered unimaginable horror during this war of aggression over the last 12 months. Let us be clear: the hands of Vladimir Putin and his armed forces are stained with blood.
On 14 September 2022, Ukrainian authorities discovered a mass grave with 440 corpses inIzium after the Russian forces withrdrew from the area.[185] The events were described as theIzium massacre. Since October–November 2022, Russian forces used missiles and dronesto systematically attack Ukraine's electrical grids, leaving millions of civilians withoutheating,electricity, water, or other basic utilities during winter. These attacks on critical civilian infrastructure were deemed as illegal and as war crimes.[186][187] This disrupted the power and water supply to 10,700,000 Ukrainian homes at one point in winter.[10] On 14 January 2023, aRussian missile strike was fired directly at a nine-storey residential building in Dnipro, killing over 40 civilians and making over 1,000 people homeless.[188] On 14 April 2023, Russian S-300 missilesstruck residential buildings in Sloviansk on Good Friday, killing a dozen civilians.[189] On 3 May 2023, Russia shelled a train station and a grocery store in Kherson during the busiest hour of the day, killing over 20 civilians.[190]
The Russian Army also perpetrated wanton destruction of Ukrainian cities and cultural destruction, including confiscating and burning Ukrainian books, historical archives, and damaging more than 240 Ukrainian heritage sites,[191] described as a "urbicide".[192] 90% of Mariupol was destroyed by the Russian 2022 siege.[193]Marinka andPopasna were similarly completely destroyed and were described as "post-apocalyptic wasteland" and "ghost towns".[194][195] The UN called Russian bombing ofUNESCO World Heritage Sites inOdesa a possible war crime.[196] Thedestruction of the Kakhovka Dam on 6 June 2023 caused flooding and environmental devastation, with some accusing Russia ofecocide.[197][198]
A UN report concluded that the Russian forces tortured and killed at least 32 Ukrainian POWs between December 2023 and February 2024.[203] On 22 March 2024,Russian forces perpetrated another wave of strikes with drones and missiles against Ukraine, leaving 1.5 million without electricity, which the UN condemned as a violation ofinternational humanitarian law.[204] On 17 April 2024, a Russian missile strike hit an eight-storey building in Chernihiv, killing 18 civilians.[205]
On8 July 2024, Russian forces bombed several Ukrainian cities withKh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles, including Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Pokrovsk. A direct missile strike hit the oncology department of the children's hospital,Okhmatdyt, in Kyiv, killing several inside.[208] The UN condemned the attack.[209] Amnesty International rejected Kremlin's claims that the Ukrainian air defence accidentally bombed the children's hospital, adding it "seeks to deflect from Russia's responsibility for killing civilians and destroying medical facilities".[210] On 4 September 2024, Russian forces carried outairstrikes against Lviv, including homes, schools and clinics, leaving seven dead, among them a mother and her three daughters.[211]
In August 2024, UN official Danielle Bell claimed that 95% of Ukrainianprisoners of war had suffered from Russian tortures (e.g. beating, using electric shock or were strip naked).[212] The UN condemned Russia for its 1 October 2024 marketplace attack in Kherson during the busiest time of the day, which left five civilians dead.[213] Starting from October 2024, Russian forces started usinggrenade-dropping drones to hunt for civilians in Kherson, attacking and killing them in parks, bus stops or while cycling and walking on the streets. Afterwards, they would post videos on social media.[214]
19 November 2024 marked 1,000 days since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with 65% of Ukraine's own energy production capacity having been destroyed up to that point.[215] Russia again intensified the illegal strikes against energy infrastructure ahead of the 2024/2025 winter.[216]
On 8 January 2025, two Russian aerial bombs struck aZaporizhzhia industrial facility as workers were leaving from work, killing 13 civilians and injuring 110.[217] On 18 January 2025, Russia launched at least 39 Shahed drones and four ballistic missiles against Kyiv, killing three people.[218] By 2025, 70% of civilian deaths in the Kherson region were caused by short-range drones, but these drone attacks were also recorded in Kharkiv,Sumy,Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. A man inMykolaiv described how one such short-range drone circled around him when he was in his home's garden and then attacked and exploded, causing injuries.[219] The2025 Sumy airstrike onPalm Sunday, which killed 34 people including two children in the city centre, was condemned by the UN.[220] March 2025 saw a 50% increase of civilian casualties compared to March 2024.[221]
On 1 February 2025, a missile exploded and killed 15 civilians of an apartment building inPoltava, 240 km away from the battlefront. On 4 February 2025, a Russian missile hit the Izium city council building, killing six civilians. On 5 March 2025, a missile struck a hotel in Kryvyi Rih, killing six civilians. On 4 April 2025, a Russian missile detonated above a playground in the same city, killing 20 civilins, including 9 children playing there. HRW deemed these attacks indiscriminate and disproportionate, possible war crimes.[222] Russian forces droppedglide bombs on the Bilenkivska prison on 28 July 2025, killing 16 inmates inside. They also struck a hospital and maternity ward in Kamianske, killing three and injuring 22 people inside.[223] In June and July 2025, Russian forces increased the attacks on Kyiv homes, schools, kindergartens, medical facilities and universities. 11 civilians were killed in strikes on 31 July 2025.[224] On 9 September 2025, a Russian missile strikekilled over 20 pensioners in Yarova who were lining up outside to receive their pensions.[225] On 4 October 2025, a Russian drone attack struck two trains at theShostka train station, Sumy region, injuring dozens.[226]
On 14 October 2025, Russian forces targeted a UN humanitarian aid convoy delivering aid toBilozerka with attack drones. Two trucks were damaged.[227] On 22 October 2025, Russian missile and drone attacks killed six civilians, including two children, while targeting the center of Kharkiv, hitting a kindergarten.[228]
An October 2025 UN report confirmed Russian forces deported civilians from theoccupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast to territory still under control of the Ukrainian government. Ukrainians on Russian-occupied territories were arrested, detained, tortured, their documents confiscated, under the accusation of sabotage, that they were pro-Ukrainian or refused to take a Russian passport. They were made to walk between 10–15 kilometers from the occupied territory through a dangerous area with landmines and trenches, while hearing sounds of shots and shelling. Some were deported as far as Georgia, and banned to return to Russia and Russian-occupied territory for 20 to 40 years.[229][230]
Russo-Ukrainian war death toll compared to other modern European conflicts
By 30 March 2022, the UN reported that 4 million refugees fled Ukraine, that 50 hospitals in the country were targeted, and that Russia used cluster munition in at least 24 instances.[231] Russia's attack against Ukraine forced 14 million people to flee their homes, of which 7.8 million fled the country,[232] sparking thelargest refugee crisis of the 21st century.[233] On 22 April 2022, the UN recorded at least 2,343 killed civilians, of which 92.3% were attributable to the Russian armed forces.[234] By 21 February 2023, a year into the invasion, the UN recorded 8,006 killed civilians, including 487 children.[235] By November 2025, the number of civilian fatalities verified by the UN was 14,534, including 738 children,[236][237] whereas Ukrainian sources reported of 16,500 killed civilians by January 2023.[238] If the fatalities whose sex is yet unknown are excluded, then women and children made up 42% of the verified civilian deaths.[239] In 2024, Ukraine's government enumerated 35,000 missing people in the war, including 16,000 civilians.[240] ThePeace Research Institute Oslo estimated 81,000 total dead in 2022.[241]
In February 2024, Ukrainian officials estimated up to 50,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed in the Russian invasion. US officials estimated around 70,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers and 120,000 dead Russian soldiers.[242] Ukrainian averagemortality rate was 8.7/1000 people in 2020,[243] and jumped to 19.8/1000 in 2024, whereas Russia's mortality rate that same year was 14.1/1000, ranking them as #1 and #9, respectively, on thelist of countries with the highest mortality rates.[244] In August 2024,Haaretz estimated 172,000 people died in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[245] In February 2025,Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft estimated 250,000 dead.[246]The Economist estimated between 106,000 and 140,000 dead Russian soldiers by June 2024, a death toll higher than all of Moscow's wars from 1946 to 2022 combined.[247] By July 2025,The Economist updated its estimated range to 190,000–350,000 Russian soldier deaths (including 31,000 dead in only two months between May and July) and 73,000–140,000 Ukrainian soldiers deaths.[248] Political scientistNeta Crawford estimated 323,000 dead in the war by October 2025, with an average rate of 7,690 killed per month—surpassing the average of 2,826 killed per month in theGaza war and 772 killed in theWar in Afghanistan (2001–2021). According to Crawford, while civilians accounted for 80 percent of the fatalities in the Gaza War and 26 percent in the War in Afghanistan, four percent of those killed in Ukraine were civilians.[249]
Total number of destroyed or damaged homes in Ukraine by 2023[250] compared to other modern wars
Carl Conetta, co-director of the Project on Defense Alternatives, estimated that the war directly took the lives of 20,000 Ukrainian civilians and indirectly another 20,000 (due to such effects as lack of access to essentialhealth care) by May 2023, reaching the levels of death toll comparable toYugoslav Wars and the worst months of theIraq War.[251]
From 24 February 2022 to 30 June 2023, OHCHR assessed that 90.5% of all civilian fatalities were killed byexplosive weapons with wide area effects, and that 84.2% of them were recorded on the Ukrainian-controlled territory.[252] No region in Ukraine was spared from Russian attacks. By one estimate, only 3% of all Russian missiles, drones and bombs hit military targets, while 97% hit civilians targets.[253] By June 2023,UNDP estimated 1.5 million homes in Ukraine were either damaged or destroyed in the Russo-Ukrainian War.[250] By comparison, approximately 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed in Ukraine during World War II.[254] 13% of all Ukrainian housing units was damaged or destroyed by February 2025, whereas the post-war reconstruction was estimated at $524 billion.[255] Additionally, around 174,000 km2 (67,000 sq mi) of Ukraine was contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants.[256]
On 3 July 2023, Around 700,000 children have been brought from conflict zones in Ukraine to Russian territory, according to a Russian MP, leading to concerns over illegal deportations and forced removals.[257]
In March 2024, the OHCHR Commission published a report concluding the following:
The Commission is concerned with the number, the geographic spread, and the gravity of human rights violations and corresponding international crimes which it has documented during its mandate. These have affected men, women, boys and girls of all backgrounds and ages. It has concluded that Russian authorities have committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes, including the war crime of excessive incidental death, injury, or damage; wilful killings; torture; inhuman treatment; unlawful confinement; rape; as well as unlawful transfers and deportations. The Commission has also found that the Russian armed forces' waves of attacks, starting 10 October 2022, on Ukraine's energy-related infrastructure and the use of torture by Russian authorities may amount to crimes against humanity.[258]
Aftermath of a Russian missile strike against warehouses inOdesa on 24 February 2022
Russian aircraft dropfirebombs in northernAleppo in June 2016.
On 30 September 2015, Russian military intervened directly in theSyrian Civil War on the side of the pro-Russian government ofBashar al-Assad. According to Amnesty International, in late February 2016 Russianwarplanes deliberately targeted civilians andrescue workers during their bombing campaign.[259] The human rights group has documented attacks on schools, hospitals and civilian homes. Amnesty International also said that "Russia is guilty of some the most egregious war crimes" it had seen in decades. The director of Amnesty's crisis response program, Tirana Hassan, said that after bombing civilian targets, the Russian warplanes "loop around" for a second attack to target the humanitarian workers and civilians who are trying to help those have been injured in the first sortie.[259]
In February 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported extensive use ofcluster munitions by Syria and Russia, in violation of United Nations resolution 2139 of 22 February 2014, which demanded that all parties end "indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas". HRW said that "Russian or Syrian forces were responsible for the attacks" and that the munitions were "manufactured in the former Soviet Union or Russia" and that some were of a type that had "not been documented as used in Syria" prior to Russia's involvement in the war, which they claimed, suggested that "either Russian aircraft dropped them or Russian authorities recently provided the Syrian government with more cluster munitions, or both".[12] HRW also noted that while neither Russia nor Syria are parties to the Cluster Munitions Convention, the use of such munitions contradicts statements issued by the Syrian government that they would refrain from using them.[12] Russian indiscriminate bombings against civilians, using bannedcluster bombs orfirebombing, were often deemed as a violation of international law, mostly during thebattle of Aleppo[14][13] andsiege of Eastern Ghouta.[260] Several parallels were drawn between the 2016 destructions in Aleppo with those fromGrozny in 2000,[92] described by some as indicating a joint policy of "take no prisoners".[93] Between May and July 2019, heavy Russian bombardments killed 544 civiliansin the assault on Idlib.[261] On 22 July 2019, theMa'arrat al-Numan market bombing killed 43 civilians.[262] On 16 August 2019, Russian fighter jets perpetrated anairstrike on Hass refugee camp, killing 20 civilians.[263][264]
On 6 March 2018, theUnited Nations Human Rights Council published a public report confirming that theAtarib market bombing was perpetrated by theRussian military. A Russian fixed-wing aircraft usingunguided weapons, including blast weapons, were used against this location. The report concluded that using such heavy weapons on densely populated civilian areas may amount to a war crime.[265][266] On 2 February 2017, theOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report on the battle of Aleppo, confirming that Russia used cluster andincendiary weapons. It concluded that their use on densely populated area in eastern Aleppo "amounts to the use of an inherently indiscriminate weapon, constituting the war crime of indiscriminate attacks in a civilian populated area".[16]
TheSyrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that Russian air strikes and artillery shells have killed 18,000 people, including nearly 8,000 civilians, in Syria by 1 October 2018.[267]
On 27 October 2021, the UN experts of theHuman Rights Council warned that Russia's paramilitaryWagner Group "violently harassed and intimidated civilians, including peacekeepers, journalists, aid workers and minorities in theCentral African Republic". It called on the government of the Central African Republic to sever all ties with the Wagner Group.[268][269]
Examples of crimes believed to have been committed by Wagner Group members in the Central African Republic include theAïgbado massacre,[270]killing of 12 unarmed men near Bossangoa on 21 July 2021, and beating and holding suspected rebels in inhuman conditions in an open hole at a national army base inAlindao between June and August 2021.[271]
In April 2022,Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Russian mercenaries, believed to be members of theWagner Group, had committed atrocities against hundreds of civilians inMali, alongside members of theMalian Armed Forces. According to the NGO,Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, as many as 456 civilians died in nine incidents involving Malian forces and Wagner fighters, between January and mid-April 2022. The largest single atrocity was committed by Russian and Malian forces in theMoura massacre, where around 300 civilian men were killed on 23 March 2022.[272][273][274]
The Russian government denied accountability in its local courts. While thousands of investigations were undertaken, only one person was convicted for crimes against the Chechens in the Chechen wars—Yuri Budanov, convicted by a Russian court of kidnapping and murder ofElza Kungaeva and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003[275]—which led Amnesty International to conclude that there is "no accountability" and that a Russian "lack of prosecution has resulted in a climate of impunity".[276]
On 29 March 2005Sergey Lapin was sentenced to 11 years for the torture of Chechen student Zelimkhan Murdalov in police custody, who disappeared since.[277] In December 2007,Lt Yevgeny Khudyakov and Lt Sergei Arakcheyev were sentenced to 17 and 15 years for killing three Chechen construction workers near a Grozny checkpoint in January 2003.[278]
On 24 May 2018, after extensive comparative research, the Dutch investigation concluded that the Buk that shot down the 2014Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 came from the Russian53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade inKursk.[279] In a statement by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs of 5 July 2017, it was announced that several countries will prosecute any suspects identified in the downing of flight MH17 in the Netherlands and under Dutch law.[280] A future treaty between the Netherlands and Ukraine will make it possible for the Netherlands to prosecute in the cases of all 298 victims, regardless of their nationality. This treaty was signed on 7 July 2017.[281] On 19 June 2019, Dutch prosecutors charged four people over the deaths in the MH17 crash: three Russians—Igor Strelkov, a formerFSB employee; Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov; formerGRU operatives—and one Ukrainian—Leonid Kharchenko—associated with the Donetsk People's Republic.[282][283][284] On 17 November 2022, a Dutch court found Girkin, Dubinsky and Kharchenko guilty and sentenced themin absentia to life in prison.[285]
On 29 August 2003, a Dutch court (Rechtbank's-Gravenhage) found that theSamashki massacre of 250 Chechen civilians was a crime against humanity.[286] On 9 November 2021, Ukraine authorities arrested Denis Kulikovsky, a senior warden of theIzoliatsiia detention center in the Donetsk People's Republic, where prisoners were tortured.[287]
Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, who has effectively ruled Russia since 2000, and Russian Defense MinisterSergei Shoigu are both accused of war crimes.[288]
On 15 March 2022, theUnited States Senate passed a resolution unanimously condemning war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine and calling for investigations by the International Criminal Court, including againstVladimir Putin.[289]
On 13 May 2022, Ukrainian authorities started their first war crimes trial involving the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Russian soldierVadim Shishimarin was indicted for killing an unarmed civilian in theSumy Oblast. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[291] On 31 May, a Kyiv courtsentenced two Russian soldiers to11+1⁄2 years each for firing artillery on two villages in theKharkiv Oblast.[292] On 8 August 2022, Russian soldier Mikhailo Kulikov was sentenced to 10 years in prison for firing from his tank at an apartment building on the outskirts ofChernihiv.[293] On 29 September 2022 Russian Lieutenant Serhiy Steiner was sentencedin absentia to 9 years in prison by a Ukrainian court for looting and destruction of civilian property in the village ofLukyanivka.[294] On 23 December 2022, a Ukrainian court sentenced four Russian soldiers to 11 years in prison for abducting and torturing three residents ofBorova who formed an Anti-Terrorist Unit.[295] On 3 March 2023, a Ukrainian court sentenced a Russian pilot to 12 years in prison for dropping eight bombs on the Kharkiv TV and radio station.[296] By December 2022, Ukraine identified more than 600 suspected war criminals from Russia, including Russian Defense MinisterSergei Shoigu.[297]
Since 2022 Ukrainian government had been running a website Russian Torturers which is used to publish personal details and military affiliation of the perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine.[298]
On 23 November 2022, theEuropean Parliament designated Russia astate sponsor of terrorism, declaring that its widespread military attacks on Ukrainianenergy infrastructure, hospitals, schools and shelters violate international law and endanger Ukrainian civilians in winter.[303] On 19 January 2023, the European Parliament also adopted a resolution recommending the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute Putin and Belarus' leaderAlexander Lukashenko for war crimes.[304]
In its 2024 report on the siege of Mariupol, Human Rights Watch published a list of 10 people who should be held responsible for war crimes due to theircommand responsibility:[305]
Vladimir Putin, president of the Russia and commander-in-chief of the military
Sergei Shoigu, defense minister and military second-in-command
Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
On 21 January 2021, the ECtHR also separately found Russia guilty of murder, torture,looting, and destruction of homes in Georgia, as well as preventing the return of 20,000 displaced Georgians to their territory.[22][23][24]
TheCouncil of Europe, the international organization that administers the ECtHR,expelled Russia on 15 March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.
When theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) started to investigateRussia's annexation of Crimea for possible violations ofinternational law, Russia withdrew its membership on 16 November 2016.[27] Nonetheless, in its preliminary 2017 report, the ICC found that "the situation within the territory ofCrimea andSevastopol would amount to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation" and that it "factually amounts to an ongoing state ofoccupation".[306] It further found that there is credible evidence that at least 10 people have disappeared and are believed to have been killed in Crimea for opposing the change of its status.[307] In January 2016, the ICC also opened an investigation into possible war crimes perpetrated during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.[308]
On 28 February 2022, the ICC prosecutorKarim Ahmad Khan announced that he would launch an investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine.[309] On 17 March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children's RightsMaria Lvova-Belova for war crimes of deportation andillegal transfer of civilians (children) fromoccupied Ukraine to Russia.[310]Human Rights Watch welcomed the indictment, saying it "advances justice".[311] Amnesty International also lauded ICC's decision, recommending that the indictment should be expanded to include many other war crimes as well.[312]
On 5 March 2024, the ICC indicted Lieutenant GeneralSergei Kobylash, Commander ofRussian Aerospace Forces, and AdmiralViktor Sokolov, Commander of theBlack Sea Fleet, for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated through attacks at civilian objects, causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, and inhumane acts during the attacks against Ukrainian electric infrastructure from October 2022 through March 2023.[313][314] On 25 June 2024, the ICC indicted former Minister of DefenceSergei Shoigu and Head of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian FederationValery Gerasimov for the same three counts.[315][316]
US PresidentJoe Biden allowed the US to cooperate with the ICC in sharing evidence of Russian war crimes.[317]
Ukraine brought a case before theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ) against Russia. On 16 March 2022, a ruling was reached, and the ICJ ordered Russia to "immediately suspend the military operations" in Ukraine.[318]
^Oksana Dudko (2022). "A conceptual limbo of genocide: Russian rhetoric, mass atrocities in Ukraine, and the current definition's limits".Revue Canadienne des Slavistes.64 (2–3):133–145.doi:10.1080/00085006.2022.2106691.S2CID252316182.Sergeitsev's article is a significant example of how the Kremlin's claims that it is preventing genocide against Russian Ukrainians have transformed into open admissions about perpetrating genocide in Ukraine. As Susan Smith-Peter points out, we have now encountered a kind of twenty-first-century 'postmodern genocide': while accusing Ukraine of perpetrating genocide, Russia uses genocidal rhetoric and commits genocidal crimes itself, and, moreover, it 'does not feel the need to hide [them].' Indeed, Sergeitsev's explicit call for Russians to destroy Ukraine is shocking. Siding with Russia's state propaganda rhetoric about "Nazi Ukraine," Sergeitsev proposes to liquidate Ukraine as a state, including the very usage of the name 'Ukraine,' because 'Ukraine, as history has shown, is impossible as a nation-state, and attempts to 'build' one naturally lead to Nazism.'
^abOHCHR & 2 February 2017, p. 12... «Between July and December 2016, Syrian and Russian forces carried out daily air strikes, claiming hundreds of lives and reducing hospitals, schools and markets to rubble... Syrian and Russian air forces conducted daily air strikes in Aleppo throughout most of the period under review, exclusively employing, as far as the Commission could determine,unguided air-delivered munitions»...
^Szonert-Binienda, Maria (2012)."Was Katyn a Genocide?"(PDF).Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law.44 (3). scholarlycommons.law.case.edu:633–717. Retrieved18 June 2017.
^Haque, Mozammel (1999). "Genocide in Chechnya and the World Community".Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.52 (4):15–29.JSTOR41394437.
^Jones, Adam (2011). "Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus".Journal of Genocide Research.13 (1):199–202.doi:10.1080/14623528.2011.554083.S2CID71276051.
^Baiev, Kh.; et al. (with Ruth et Nicholas Daniloff) (2005).Le serment tchétchène: Un chirurgien dans la guerre (in French). Translated by Baranger, L. Paris: Jean-Claude Lattès. pp. 167,312–313, 325, 413.ISBN2-7096-2644-6.
^Sylvaine, P.; Alexandra, S. (23 March 2000)."Grozny, ville fantôme".L'Express (in French). Retrieved8 August 2022.
^Allaman, J. (2000).La guerre de Tchétchénie ou l'irrésistible ascension de Vladimir Poutine (in French). Genève: Georg Éditeur. p. 114.ISBN2-8257-0703-1.
^CHIFU, Nantoi, Sushko, Iulian, Oazu, Oleksandr (2009).The Russian Georgian War A trilateral cognitive institutional approach of the crisis decision-making process.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"UN strongly condemns Russian strikes in Odesa, Ukraine".UN News. 24 July 2023. Retrieved24 July 2023.Furthermore, the attacks contradict recent statements by Russian authorities concerning precautions taken to spare World Heritage sites in Ukraine, including their buffer zones, the agency said, adding that intentional destruction of cultural sites may amount to a war crime.
Bieńczyk-Missala, Agnieszka (2024)."Russia's War Crimes in Ukraine as a Tool of War". In Grzebyk, Patrycja; Uczkiewicz, Dominika (eds.).The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict and War Crimes: Challenges for Documentation and International Prosecution. Routledge. p. 115-128.ISBN9781003493785.
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