HR Group Levels War Crime Allegations Against Russian Forces
New York, April 3: A leading human rights group on Sunday said it had documented alleged cases of the Russian military committing laws-of-war violations against civilians in occupied areas of the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions of Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement said it has documented alleged cases that “include a case of repeated rape; two cases of summary execution, one of six men, the other of one man; and other cases of unlawful violence and threats against civilians between February 27 and March 14, 2022.” “Soldiers were also implicated in looting civilian property, including food, clothing, and firewood. Those who carried out these abuses are responsible for war crimes,” it added.
The human rights group interviewed 10 people, including witnesses, victims, and local residents of Russia-occupied territories.
The statement said: On March 4, Russian forces in Bucha, about 30 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, rounded up five men and summarily executed one of them. A witness said that soldiers forced the five men to kneel on the side of the road, pulled their T-shirts over their heads, and shot one of the men in the back of the head. Russian forces in the village of Staryi Bykiv, in Chernihiv region, rounded up at least six men on February 27, and later executed them, the statement said.
A woman told the rights group that a Russian soldier had “repeatedly raped her in a school” in the Kharkiv region where she and her family had been sheltering on March 13. “She said that he beat her and cut her face, neck, and hair with a knife,” HRW wrote.
“The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW. “Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces’ custody should be investigated as war crimes.” “Russia has an international legal obligation to impartially investigate alleged war crimes by its soldiers,” Williamson added.
