RUSSIAN ATROCITIES IN UKRAINE
By Vincent Lyn
Russian military forces have extrajudicially executed civilians in Ukraine in apparent war crimes war on Ukraine. The brutality with which Russian soldiers conduct themselves toward Ukraine’s civilian population. Between their officer corps’ lack of tactical finesse and the dehumanizing training conditions they tolerate for rank-and-file soldiers, Russia’s forces have earned a reputation both for indiscriminate bombardment of urban areas and for up-close-and-personal cruelty wherever they have fought in the past quarter-century: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and, now, Ukraine. The atrocities revealed after the Russian retreat from Kyiv’s suburbs are not surprising in light of that history, but they shock the conscience nonetheless. Some 900 civilian bodies have been found, most of them shot dead at close range, according to local police. The corpse of one Ukrainian resident of Bucha, Ivan Monastyrskyi, had bullet holes in the calves and “his arms were stretched out at strange angles between slats of wood with nails through them. Testimonies shows that unarmed civilians in Ukraine are being killed in their homes and streets in acts of unspeakable cruelty and shocking brutality.
These killings of civilians often appeared to be intentional, carried out by snipers and soldiers. Civilians were killed when crossing the road or leaving their shelters to seek food and water. Others were killed as they fled in their vehicles. In the village of Katiuzhanka, Kyiv region, a young couple, their 14-year-old daughter and a grandfather were shot by Russian soldiers while trying to drive to their house. The parents were killed, while the child received two gunshot wounds.
Still others died because of stress to their health caused by hostilities and the lack of medical aid, how people had been forced to spend weeks in basements because they were threatened by Russian soldiers “with abuse or death” if they tried to leave.
Raped in front of his mother
“These have been 10 weeks of sheer horror to the people of my country,” said the Ukrainian representative. “Ten weeks of time of deep suffering for every Ukrainian family without exception.”
Addressing the Council from Kyiv and holding up a sheet of paper showing a dark mass of thick black lines that had been drawn by a victim of sexual violence, Ms. Dzheppar alleged that children had been “raped in front of their mothers, like the 11-year-old boy who was raped in front of his mother; he actually lost the ability to speak after, and the only way how he communicates with the world are the black lines, and this is the first picture that he drew working with a group of psychologists who are trying to help him recover.
Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, U.N-appointed independent rights experts known as Special Procedures have highlighted deep concerns over violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law, including the U.N. Charter.
These include an alert over the apparent ill-treatment of some of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and foreign nationals in Ukraine.
“Colleagues had also noted with serious concern reports of people of African descent and racial and ethnic minorities being subjected to discriminatory treatment as they flee Ukraine,” said Chair of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, insisting that “the lives of all people of Ukraine are in danger, including ethnic, national, linguistic and religious minorities”.
The conflict had affected regions where different ethnic groups had lived together for years, the rights expert continued, before issuing a fresh alert over dangers of reporting on the war:
“My colleagues referred to numerous reports that journalists are being targeted, tortured, kidnapped, attacked and killed, or refused safe passage from the cities and regions under siege.”
To date, Amnesty International has obtained evidence that civilians were killed in indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv and Sumy Oblast, documented an airstrike that killed civilians queueing for food in Chernihiv, and gathered evidence from civilians living under siege in Kharkiv, Izium and Mariupol.
One 46-year-old woman, from the village of Bohdanivka, said Russian forces entered her village on 7 or 8 March, and parked their tanks on the streets.
In the evening of 9 March, the woman — who lived with her husband, 10-year-old daughter and mother-in-law — heard shooting through their downstairs windows. She and her husband shouted that they were civilians, and that they were unarmed. When they came downstairs, two Russian soldiers pushed them and their daughter into a boiler room.
She told Amnesty International: “They forced us in and slammed the door. After just a minute they opened the door, they asked my husband if he had cigarettes. He said no, he hadn’t smoked for a couple of weeks. They shot him in his right arm. The other said, ‘Finish him,’ and they shot him in the head.
“He didn’t die right away. From 9.30pm to 4am he was still breathing, though he wasn’t conscious. I begged him… ’If you can hear me, please move your finger’. He didn’t move his finger, but I put his hand on my knee and squeezed it. Blood was flowing out of him. When he took his last breath, I turned to my daughter and said, ‘It seems daddy has died’.”
A neighbor witnessed Russian forces breaking into the woman’s house that night, and confirmed he had seen her husband’s body slumped in the corner of the boiler room. The woman and her child escaped from Bohdanivka later that day. The woman’s mother-in-law, aged 81, has limited mobility and was left behind.
‘My father had six large holes in his back’
On 3 March, Kateryna Tkachova, 18, was at home in the village of Vorzel with her parents when several tanks displaying the letter ‘Z’ — which Russian forces have used to mark their vehicles during the invasion of Ukraine — were driven down their street.
Her mother Nataliya and father Valeryi left the cellar where they were hiding to go into the street, after telling Katerina to stay where she was. Kateryna then heard gunshots.
She told Amnesty International: “Once the tanks had passed by, I jumped over the fence to the neighbor’s house. I wanted to check if they’re alive. I looked over the fence and saw my mother lying on her back on one side of the road, and my father was face down on the other side of the street. I saw large holes in his coat. The next day I went to them. My father had six large holes in his back, my mother had a smaller hole in her chest.”
Once the tanks had passed by, I jumped over the fence to the neighbor’s house. I wanted to check if they’re alive. I looked over the fence and saw my mother lying on her back on one side of the road, and my father was face down on the other side of the street
Kateryna said that her parents were dressed in civilian clothing and unarmed. On 10 March, a volunteer involved in evacuations from areas around Kyiv helped Kateryna leave Vorzel. The volunteer told Amnesty International he had seen the bodies of Kateryna’s parents lying in the street near her house. In a video verified by Amnesty International, the pair can be seen writing Kateryna’s parents’ names, dates of birth, and dates of death on a piece of cardboard, before placing it beside their bodies, which are covered with blankets.
‘They noticed us and immediately opened fire’
During the first days of Russian occupation of the city of Hostomel, Taras Kuzmak was driving around delivering food and medication to bomb shelters where civilians were gathering.
At 1.30pm on 3 March, he was with the city’s mayor, Yuryi Prylypko, and two other men, when their car came under gunfire from the direction of a large residential complex that had been seized by Russian forces. The men tried to jump out of the car, but one man, Ivan Zorya, was killed immediately, while Yuryi Prylypko fell to the ground injured after being shot. Taras Kuzmak and the other surviving man hid behind an excavator for hours as shooting continued.
He told Amnesty International: “They noticed us and immediately opened fire, there was no warning. I could only hear the mayor [Prylypko]. I knew he was injured, but I didn’t know if it was fatal or not. I just told him to lie still, not to make any moves… They shot at us again at around 3pm, and about half-an-hour after that, I understood there was no life from him. There is a kind of breathing somebody has only right before they die, their last breath. Ivan Zorya’s head was taken off, I think they must have been using something high-calibre.”
I knew he was injured, but I didn’t know if it was fatal or not. I just told him to lie still, not to make any moves… They shot at us again at around 3pm, and about half-an-hour after that, I understood there was no life from him
Two other Hostomel residents told Amnesty International they had seen Yuryi Prylypko’s body near a church when an impromptu funeral was held for him several days later. Other residents confirmed that in the days leading up to his death, Yuryi Prylypko had been delivering food and medication around the city, always driving a civilian vehicle.
Unlawful killings and rape
Amnesty International collected three additional accounts of unlawful killings of civilians, including the account of a survivor of rape whose husband was extrajudicially executed, by Russian forces.
A woman in a village east of Kyiv told Amnesty International that, on 9 March, two Russian soldiers had entered her house, killed her husband, then repeatedly raped her at gunpoint while her young son hid in a boiler room nearby. The woman was able to escape from the village to Ukrainian-controlled territory with her son.
Milena, a 24-year-old from Bucha, told Amnesty International that she saw the body of a woman who had lived on her street lying outside her house. The woman’s mother told Milena that her daughter was shot in the initial days of the invasion while looking over her fence at a Russian military vehicle. Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab independently verified video footage that confirmed the location of the shallow grave in which she was buried.
Volodymyr Zakhliupanyy and his wife fled the city of Hostomel in the first few days of the invasion, but their son Serhiy, 39, was determined to stay.
Initially, they spoke by telephone every day, and Serhiy described the heavy fighting in the city. On 4 March, Volodymyr could no longer contact his son. Friends who remained in the city then tried to find Serhiy, and went to the building where he had been sheltering in the basement.
Volodymyr told Amnesty International: “When they asked the neighbours, they said that on 13 March my son was taken away [from the basement] by the Russians. When they went looking for Serhiy, they found him behind the garages of the same building… they said he had been shot in the head.”
Life under Russian occupation
Interviewees told Amnesty International they had lost access to electricity, water, and gas in the early days of the invasion, and there was very limited access to food. There was little mobile phone connectivity, and some interviewees said Russian soldiers had confiscated or destroyed mobile phones whenever they saw residents carrying them, or threatened them with violence for having a phone.
Threats of violence and intimidation were also widespread. One man in Hostomel said that he saw an entire dormitory of people who were sheltering from shelling who were forced to go outside, where Russian military officers immediately fired gunshots over their heads, forcing them to drop to the ground. Two men from Bucha also said snipers regularly shot at them when they went to salvage food from a destroyed grocery store near their home.
As these horrendous accounts of life under Russian occupation continue to emerge, the victims in Ukraine must know that the international community is determined to secure accountability for their suffering.
War crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law
Deliberate killings of civilians, rape, torture, and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war are human rights violations and war crimes. Those who directly commit war crimes should be held criminally responsible for them. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, hierarchal superiors — including commanders and civilian leaders, such as ministers and heads of state — who knew or had reason to know about war crimes committed by their forces, but did not attempt to stop them or punish those responsible, should also be held criminally responsible.
Vincent Lyn
CEO/Founder at We Can Save Children
International Human Rights Commission
Director of Creative Development at African Views Organization
Economic & Social Council at United Nations
Editor in Chief & Middle East Correspondent at Wall Street News Agency
Rescue & Recovery Specialist at International Confederation of Police & Security Experts