The War Crimes Committed by Russia in Ukraine: Violations of International Law

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“Why are we progressing so slowly at the front?” Because we are not at war (against Ukraine). We are not at war. Waging war is completely different, it’s total destruction of infrastructure, it’s total destruction of cities. We don’t do that. We’re trying to preserve infrastructure and we’re trying to preserve human life.”

This cynical lie was uttered by the spokesman of the war criminal Vladimir Putin – Dmitry Peskov, in an attempt, however ridiculous, to explain why the Russian army has not been able to enter Kiev for 442 days, although it was supposed to do so in three days.

“We don’t destroy infrastructure and cities”

After Putin’s blitzkrieg to take Kiev and install a puppet government failed, the Russian Terrorist Federation realized that it could not win this war militarily. Ukrainians’ desire to protect their land and homes proved an insurmountable obstacle. Because of this, Russian terrorists deliberately started attacking civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. The power grid was one of the targets of the occupiers, whose aim was to break Ukraine’s will to fight. Failed.

Even in war there are rules. Many decades ago, the international community decided to stop the mass deaths of civilians during wars and armed conflicts. Thus were created the rules of war, which prohibit the killing of civilians, the infliction of damage and torture on prisoners, and the release of lethal weapons into undefended settlements. Despite the fact that the rules for waging war are set out in international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, the Rome Statute (of the International Criminal Court) and other international laws and agreements, many of which Russia is a signatory to, the Putin regime is flagrantly flouting these rules.

These rules are cynically and unscrupulously violated to this day by Russian soldiers sent to Ukraine by their dictator Putin with one sole purpose: to kill and destroy. The Russians are committing mass murder.

Article 52 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions (since 1977) states: “Civil objects shall not be subject to attack or repression. Attacks should be strictly limited to military targets.” Russia blatantly violates these rules, attacking residential buildings, houses, hospitals, schools, religious buildings, kindergartens, etc.

Entire cities were ruthlessly destroyed by Russian terrorists. Mariupol, once a beautiful city, is just one example of the devastating Russian actions. Bakhmut was totally destroyed. Dozens of corpses of executed civilians were found in the streets of Bucha. In its attempt to sow fear and panic, Russia has committed brutal war crimes for which clear evidence has been presented.

“We’re trying to save human life”

In the Geneva Conventions (Article Three of the treaty, signed on August 12, 1949), it is written that “persons not taking an active part in hostilities shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.”

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has brutally killed and continues to kill unarmed civilians, including women and children. In no way do the Russian invaders make any effort to protect civilian life, on the contrary, they deliberately kill civilians. The purpose of this genocide is crushing the will of Ukrainians to resist. There are also numerous documented cases of rape by Russian terrorists, including minor girls. Moreover, Putin’s regime does not care about the lives of not only Ukrainians, but also its own citizens. Hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are being sent without weapons and training as cannon fodder to the front. There are a number of cases on the front where hundreds of Russian soldiers died just to gain a few meters of territory, including in the Bakhmut direction.

According to the Geneva Conventions, “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportation of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power or to that of any other country, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.”

Thousands of Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia, which is why the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant not only for Vladimir Putin, but also for the Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. In special “re-education” camps, Ukrainian children are subjected to torture and brainwashing in order to change their Ukrainian identity.

At least 85,445 have been documented since the invasion began military crimescommitted by the occupiers, including the killing of civilians, deportation, rape and destruction of civilian objects.

“We are not at war”

This is perhaps the most frequently repeated lie of the Putin regime. Peskov gives no logical explanation why Russia, which is “not waging war”, should mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops.

The Kremlin regime has long tried to present itself to the public as anti-imperialist and anti-colonial. However, Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine revealed its own imperial and colonial ambitions towards its neighboring countries in Europe, the Caucasus and Asia. By launching the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, illegally annexing Crimea in the same year, and launching a full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has flagrantly violated international law and the UN Charter, threatening world peace, global security and stability.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and Ukraine has been on the defensive ever since. The false claim that Ukraine is the aggressor is a classic pro-Kremlin manipulation tactic to portray Russia as a victim and divert public attention from its aggression. While this message is patently absurd to most of the world, to Russia’s increasingly hermetic information environment it serves as a rallying cry to mobilize public support for the Kremlin’s authoritarian policies.