There Must Be a Reckoning for Russian War Crimes

Two years have passed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian brutality against Ukrainians has been striking, and the evidence of Russia’s war crimes is mounting as the atrocities continue.

What has become evident is that these war crimes are not aberrations or crimes of omission. They are part and parcel of what Russia is trying to achieve in Ukraine. Testimonies collected by my organization, the Reckoning Project, and by others point to the systematic and deliberate nature of Russia��s crimes.

This makes the pursuit of accountability in Ukraine not only about justice. It is also about denying Russia its objectives and setting a precedent for other states intent on attacking their neighbors. Ensuring accountability and justice in Ukraine will contribute to accountability and justice globally.

Every day, Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General publishes on its website the total number of war crime cases that the office has registered since February 2022. This month, that number passed 125,000. The number—staggering by any account—increases every day, sometimes by the hundreds, and stands for thousands of destroyed lives. Each case is a devastating tragedy in and by itself.

The actual number of war crimes is much higher, as the reported number doesn’t account for most of the crimes committed in the occupied territories, where Ukrainian law enforcement has no access—close to 20 percent of Ukraine. There may be some 3 million Ukrainians still living in these territories. Many residents have fled, but many still remain.

Beyond the scale of the crimes, it’s crucial to understand that the atrocities are integral to Russia’s war aims. Of course, some crimes are the result of a rogue soldier’s actions. But the bulk of crimes stem directly from how and why Russia is waging war against Ukraine. They are a feature, not a bug, of Russia’s war. They are systematic, deliberate, and serve a clear purpose.

Take the missile and drone strikes against civilian critical infrastructure. Last winter, Russia launched a massive air campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing nearly irreparable damage to the energy network. The purpose of these attacks was to make Ukraine uninhabitable during the cold winter. This was intended to trigger a new wave of refugees into the European Union with the aim of creating divisions among Europeans and undermining their support for Ukraine.

Today, the barrages of missile and drone attacks against civilian targets—including schools, shopping malls, and apartment blocks—are meant to terrorize the population in order to undermine Ukrainian’s morale and put pressure on the government in Kyiv to capitulate.

Russia’s crimes can also be seen in the liberated territories. The scale and scope of these crimes became evident when Ukrainian forces entered previously occupied towns such as Bucha and Irpin in the early days of the invasion. Mass atrocities were also uncovered in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions after these territories were liberated.

The killing of civilians, torture, and disappearances were part of a deliberate strategy to terrorize the local population and rid the territories of Ukrainian resistance. These crimes were—and are—a deliberate means to subdue and control Ukrainians living under occupation.

When preparing the invasion, Russia developed plans to take over and exercise control over Ukrainian territories. These included filtration camps and death lists of notable activists, journalists, and politicians. Although Russia failed to take Kyiv, these policies are being implemented in the territories it managed to occupy.

As Alice Jill Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, wrote in a report in September 2023, Russia’s torture of Ukrainians was “orchestrated as part of a State policy to intimidate, to instil fear, to punish, or to extract information and confessions.”

But these systematic war crimes are not merely about eliminating resistance and subjugating a conquered population to Russian rule. The aim is also to Russify these territories and the Ukrainians living there.

This can be seen in one of the most egregious crimes being committed by Russia: the deportation of Ukrainian children. Kyiv estimates that 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia, of which fewer than 400 have been returned to Ukraine. The Reckoning Project and other organizations have documented ample evidence of these deportations.

Ukrainian children are sent to Russia—ostensibly to summer camp—and never returned to their parents. They are taken from orphanages in Ukraine and put in foster homes in Russia. They are separated from their parents in filtration camps. Many of the deported children are adopted by Russians and given Russian identities.

The deportation of children—the war crime on which the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is based—goes to the heart of Russia’s objectives in Ukraine: to destroy Ukrainian identity, culture, and ultimately the nation.

This can also be seen in the systematic indoctrination and reeducation of Ukrainian children living in the occupied territories. Ukrainian children are effectively taught to abandon their Ukrainian identity and instead become loyal Russian subjects.

It is important to understand what Russian occupation means in Ukraine. It is not merely a question of switching the language from Ukrainian to Russian in schools or Ukrainian flags being replaced by Russian flags. Occupation means oppression, torture, disappearances, indoctrination, and kidnapped children. It means the eradication of one’s culture and identity.

Russia’s actions in the occupied territories demonstrably negate the argument that its invasion was sparked by fears that Ukraine would join NATO and pose a security threat to Russia. The aggression was driven by Putin’s imperial ambition of “gathering the Russian lands” by conquering Ukraine. The country’s possible membership in NATO or the EU was seen as an obstacle to this ambition rather than a security threat.

Moscow’s efforts to Russify Ukraine and Ukrainians are also why the notion of freezing the conflict and accepting Russian control over the occupied territories is unthinkable for most Ukrainians. Two years into the war, their will to fight remains remarkably high. This is because Ukrainians know what occupation means: the destruction of a large part of their nation. Contrary to many Western armchair strategists, they know that occupation is about people—not just about land.

Holding Russia accountable for its crimes in Ukraine matters first and foremost to the victims and their families. It is primarily about ensuring justice for those who have suffered from Russia’s aggression. But it is also about denying Russia its strategic objectives in Ukraine. The pursuit of accountability puts pressure on the perpetrators and can help deter further crimes. It is a way to push back at Russia’s attempt to terrorize the population, dismember the country, and destroy the nation.

The war in Ukraine is also part of Russia’s wider effort to remodel the rules-based international order. Moscow seeks a world where might makes right, where only strong countries are sovereign, and where disregard for the laws of war is the norm. It seeks a world in which Russia can act with impunity in its neighborhood and beyond.

In that way, the war in Ukraine was enabled by the weak international response to Russia’s past wars in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria. Just as impunity in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria enabled Russian crimes in Ukraine, impunity in Ukraine would enable crimes elsewhere.

That Russia, in particular, is the perpetrator matters. As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a nuclear power, it has a direct impact on the fabric of the international system. Accountability in Ukraine will help deter other would-be perpetrators of war crimes, regardless of their international status and standing.

To this end, the arrest warrant against Putin for the deportation of Ukrainian children is particularly powerful. It restricts his ability to engage on the global stage and represent Russia in international relations. The designation as a suspected war criminal will follow him to his grave. Other would-be tyrants are taking note.