Thousands of credible reports of Russian atrocities in Ukraine now constitute a mountain of evidence compiled by international organizations, European authorities and Ukrainian prosecutors. Collectively, it provides documentation of a pattern of war crimes — systematic, ongoing and sanctioned by superiors — that is among the defining characteristics of Moscow’s invasion. No stable peace is likely without accountability for these outrages.
The scale of Russian criminality in Ukraine is breathtaking. It ranges from the large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure — including facilities in the country’s power grid starting last fall and, mounting evidence suggests, southern Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam in early June — to methodical violence against Ukrainian noncombatants. Both are banned by international law.
In all, said Beth Van Schaack, the State Department’s ambassador at large for global criminal justice, investigators are examining tens of thousands of allegations of individual war crimes. A new U.N. report found that Russian forces summarily executed 77 Ukrainian civilians, including five women, who were among hundreds it said have been arbitrarily detained. Ukrainian security forces have also arbitrarily detained some civilians, the report said — but in much smaller numbers with no executions.
In the vast majority of cases involving the civilians in Russian custody, the detainees were subjected to torture and other ill treatment, including sexual violence, the report said.
Those victims do not include thousands of other Ukrainian civilians killed or assaulted by Russian troops in areas under Russian control. In the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, authorities found the bodies of more than 450 Ukrainian civilians after Moscow’s forces withdrew more than a year ago; most had been shot, tortured or bludgeoned to death, officials said.