Russia’s targets: children, pregnant women, civil institutions and infrastructure

Civilian graves, victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Photo: Valentyna Klamenko / Ukraine prosecutor's office

The bombers of Aleppo are now showing their skills in Ukraine. Now the bombs are falling on Europe and Europeans are fleeing Putin’s bombs en masse. Millions of refugees, mostly women and children, are already here. Millions more will come as long as Russian bombs keep pounding Ukraine.

Before the war even started, Russia and its allies in Eastern Ukraine set the tone on February 17th, by bombing a kindergarten and school in the small town of Stanytsia Luhanska. This was the prelude to an unprecedented bombing campaign the likes of which Europe had not seen since the end of the Second World War. It is also the first European war in which the internet is widely available and images from embattled Ukrainian cities can be seen on screens in Western Europe within seconds.

Collecting evidence

Not a day goes by without a war crime being deliberately committed by Russia in Ukraine. The war began with lies about a supposed “peacekeeping mission” and “denazification”. Russia also claimed that it had no intention of “imposing anything on anyone by force”. Yet, violence can be seen every day and each attack appears more brutal than the last. As early as March 3rd, the International Criminal Court began investigating possible war crimes. This was the day that witnessed a terrible attack on residential buildings in Chernihiv.

At approximately 12:15 in the afternoon on March 3rd, the small public square formed by Chernihiv’s Viacheslava Chornovola and Kruhova streets was hit by multiple bombs, killing 47 civilians and severely damaging nearby buildings. Chief Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan wrote in a statement that there were “sufficient grounds” to open an investigation. When International Court of Justice prosecutors have reason to believe that a war crime has been committed, they initiate an investigation to find evidence pointing to individuals who may be responsible for those crimes. The collection of evidence had begun.

In a resolution adopted on March 4th, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva agreed to establish a commission to investigate violations committed during Russia’s military attack on Ukraine. Thirty-two countries voted in favour of the resolution, which was presented by Ukraine. Russia and Eritrea voted against it, while 13 nations abstained. The resolution calls for a “swift and verifiable” withdrawal of Russian troops and Russian-backed armed groups from Ukraine and urges safe and unhindered humanitarian access to people in need. The independent Commission of Inquiry will have, according to a press release, a mandate that includes investigating all alleged rights violations, abuses and related crimes. It will subsequently make recommendations on accountability measures.

The United Nations Office for Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect distinguishes between war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. War crimes are violations committed during a war between two states or internal conflicts. However, genocide and crimes against humanity are also possible in peacetime or during unilateral acts of aggression by armed forces against groups of unarmed people. The list of acts that can be defined as war crimes is long. For instance, arbitrary killings, torture, hostage taking, the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war, and forcing children into combat are the most obvious examples. In practice, however, there are many grey areas where courts will face difficult judgments.

Attacks on towns or villages like we see now in Ukraine on a daily basis, the bombing of residential buildings or schools, even the killing of civilians – all of this need not always be a war crime if it is militarily justified. But the same action can become a war crime if it results in unnecessary destruction. This seems true in most circumstances in Ukraine, as suffering and casualties often appear to exceed the military benefits of the action.

Establishing the crime

Under international humanitarian law, three principles are used to determine whether an individual or military has committed a war crime: distinction, proportionality and protective measures. The principle of proportionality prohibits militaries from responding to an attack with disproportionate force. For example, an entire village cannot be wiped out after the death of one soldier, as the Nazis did in the Second World War. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, it is also illegal to attack targets that are likely to kill or injure civilians or damage civilian targets, if the extent of such damage exceeds the expected concrete and direct military benefit. As Russia drops many unguided bombs on densely populated areas, the Russian military is accepting the deaths of Ukrainian civilians.

The principle of protection requires parties to the conflict to avert or minimise harm to the civilian population. The principle of distinction states that attempts must always be made to distinguish between civilian and belligerent populations and objects. However, this distinction can be very difficult and the transitions can be fluid. For example, in Ukraine, territorial defence forces sometimes wear civilian clothes and are recognisable as Ukrainian forces only by a blue armband.

On March 8th, the German Attorney General Peter Frank also opened an investigation into suspected war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine. This is a so-called structural procedure. Such proceedings serve to secure extensive evidence and circumstantial evidence, in order to be able to take action against individual perpetrators at a later date, if necessary. The German authorities are concerned about reports of cluster bombs and attacks on residential areas, civilian infrastructure, a gas pipeline, a nuclear waste dump and a combined heat and power plant. Also in focus are reports of the so-called target lists allegedly kept by Russian and Chechen units deployed in Ukraine. Under the International Criminal Code, the German attorney general can prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity worldwide. The action against suspected perpetrators of the Assad regime in Syria recently caused an international stir.

“Possible violations of international criminal law must be consistently prosecuted,” said Marco Buschmann, the German minister of justice. “We will collect and secure all evidence of war crimes.”

Two former German justice ministers also plan to file criminal charges with the federal attorney general against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “The air strike that hit the streets of Chernihiv shocks the conscience. This was a merciless, indiscriminate attack on people as they went about their daily business in their homes, streets and shops,” said Joanne Mariner, Amnesty International’s director for crisis response. Amnesty has already well documented this crime.

Another particularly serious case was documented by drone footage and reviewed and published by the German public television station ZDF. On March 7th, the drone filmed the shooting of a surrendering civilian near a gas station on the E40 road west of Kyiv. This was apparently done by invading Russian forces.

Serial war criminal

The most atrocious war crimes have been taking place in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol. In both cities, Russian soldiers bomb mostly residential buildings. Images of a bombed maternity hospital from Mariupol, a city on the Sea of Azov, went around the world. Pregnant women escaped from the building in total shock, injured and bleeding. Despite this, Russian propaganda denies this reality and claims that there were no women left. The building had supposedly been occupied by the right-wing Azov Battalion. None of this is true. Whenever Russian officials announce something, the opposite is usually true. Russia itself is usually guilty of what it accuses the other side of doing.

The next shock took place just a few days later. Russian bombs hit the opera house in the city centre, destroying it completely. The word “children” was written in Russian on the ground in front of the building to draw attention to the fact that women and children were taking shelter in the building. Presumably, it was thought that the Russian bombers would not attack a cultural site with women and children inside. But exactly the opposite seems to be the Russian strategy. Those who attack homes, hospitals and theatres do not do it accidentally, but with pure intent.

On the same day, according to the Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov, Russian bombs also hit the site of a public swimming pool in Mariupol. Civilians had sought shelter there as well. According to Mariupol’s local authorities, by March 17th about 80 per cent of residential buildings in the city had been damaged or destroyed. All these criminal actions against civilians are well documented, just like in Syria. Russia became a serial war criminal, because nobody stopped Putin in Chechnya or Syria.

To secure all the evidence of possible war crimes will be a huge task that one organisation cannot do by itself. What is probably needed here is an alliance of various organisations, media groups and volunteers, both abroad and on the ground. They need to document Russian atrocities, sort them, process them for the media, and forward them to the authorities for sanctions and prosecution.

Not a quick conclusion

Currently, media outlets such as Bellingcat, major human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and authorities in various countries are already working to document the numerous war crimes and human rights violations committed by Russia. Almost all war crimes and human rights violations committed so far are well documented by surveillance cameras, dashcams, TikTok videos or satellite photos. What is needed now is a digital archive, publicly accessible, to which volunteers on the ground and from around the world can submit further evidence of the crimes.

Currently, we must assume that many more war crimes will be committed in Ukraine and that more civilians will die. There is no evidence that Russia – despite its own immense losses – will withdraw from Ukraine quickly. Various experts even fear a further escalation and warn of the use of Russian chemical weapons or even tactical nuclear weapons. To prevent or punish the use of these weapons of mass destruction, the world must now consider what it is willing to do to send Russia a strong signal of deterrence.

Putin, it seems at present, will not give up his plans so quickly and may even have changed them already. Instead of occupation, Ukraine could now be threatened with complete annihilation, since militarily the Russian army has not enjoyed any great successes. Already there are numerous reports of the targeted destruction of food warehouses and vital civilian infrastructure. It looks as though Russia’s current war goal is to make the life of the population in Ukraine as bad as possible for many years to come, so that people will be even worse off than in Russia.

Jan-Henrik Wiebe is the spokesperson for the human rights organisation Libereco.

Putin, Russia crimes, Russia war, Ukraine at war, war crimes