Russian Forces Committed War Crimes In Ukraine, Human Rights Watch Says

Russian forces have committed apparent war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch stated in its annual World Report.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has wrought a devastating toll on civilians and shattered civilian life in much of the country, the New York-based human rights watchdog said in its World Report 2023, released on Thursday.

Since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian forces have carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and repeatedly targeted energy infrastructure. Millions of civilians remain without electricity, water, and heat as winter temperatures plunged. More than 14 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.

The United Nations has reported at least 6,919 civilian deaths and more than 11,000 wounded as a result of the war in Ukraine and estimates the actual figures to be much higher. Approximately 6.5 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, and about 5 million have fled as refugees to European countries. About 2.8 million Ukrainians are in Russia and Belarus, in some cases against their will.

Russian forces have killed, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared civilians. Detainees reported beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, and water boarding, among other torture and mistreatment. Russian forces have also tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war. Russian soldiers held people in degrading conditions in basements, pits, boiler rooms, and factories.

HRW said it has also received information about Ukrainian forces violating the laws of war by mistreatment and apparent summary executions of prisoners of war, which would constitute a war crime.

“Throughout the war, Russian forces have carried out horrific abuses in Ukraine with unconscionable disregard for civilian life,” said Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Accountability is crucial, both to bring justice to victims and survivors and to ensure that there is no impunity for these grave crimes.”

In the 712-page World Report 2023, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in nearly 100 countries. In her introductory essay, acting Executive Director Tirana Hassan says that in a world in which power has shifted, it is no longer possible to rely on a small group of mostly Global North governments to defend human rights. The world’s mobilization around Russia’s war in Ukraine reminds us of the extraordinary potential when governments realize their human rights obligations on a global scale.

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