Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old girl with Down’s syndrome, was walking with her mother to a speech therapy appointment in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on July 14, 2022. As her mother filmed her playfully pushing her stroller, she didn’t know that those were to be the last
Editor’s note: This story was sponsored by Common Sense Communications, a Ukrainian non-profit organization specializing in pro-democracy strategic communications. One of their ongoing projects is “Voices of Civilian Hostages,” which aims to attract the world’s attention to the issue of Russia’s illegal abduction of Ukrainian civilians. Yaroslav
Editor's note: Some of the following images are graphic in nature and might be disturbing. For Kyiv residents, Monday morning started with loud explosions throughout the city. Russia launched a large-scale missile attack targeting the capital as well as cities in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblasts on the morning of July
The SBU allege that Panchenko, the commander of the 159th Fighter Aviation Regiment of Russia's Western Military District, ordered air strikes on various targets along the eastern front.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on June 25 that it has issued arrest warrants for ex Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, now secretary of Russia's Security Council, and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, for war crimes against Ukraine. The charges relate to Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the ICC said.
Russia is accused of committing numerous war crimes during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including the execution of captive Ukrainian soldiers.
Editor’s Note: This story was produced in collaboration with the Organized Crime and Corruption and Reporting Project (OCCRP) and is published by both organizations. The story is based on the Kyiv Independent’s latest investigative documentary, “He Came Back.” The day after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
Russian forces launched three glide bombs at Kharkiv on June 10, injuring eight people, local authorities reported.
The Kyiv Independent's journalists have identified two Russian soldiers who were involved in the rape of two women during the occupation of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts in March 2022. The findings have served as the basis for the Kyiv Independent's documentary about Russian sexual violence in occupied parts of Ukraine
Sexual violence is one of the weapons Russian soldiers systematically use against Ukrainians. The Kyiv Independent presents “He Came Back” – a documentary that investigates sexual violence as war crimes.
Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on June 2 that he appealed to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to investigate videos showing beatings, humiliation, and threats of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers in the Kharkiv direction.
Qatar acts as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia to bring back Ukrainian children illegally held by Russia.
Editor's note: This article features graphic photos. Russian forces destroyed one of Ukraine's largest printing presses amid a mass missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on the morning of May 23. According to regional authorities, Russia used S-300 missiles, fired from inside Russian territory, to strike the factory belonging
Five people were killed and nine injured in Russian strikes on villages in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv Oblast, local authorities reported on May 19.
The Kyiv Independent's investigative documentary "Uprooted" on Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children has won the Bucha Journalism Conference Prize in the "best investigation of Russian war crimes" category.
Chloropicrin is often used as an herbicide. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), exposure to its vapors can cause severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and, if inhaled, internal organs.
Since last December, Russian forces likely executed at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers who tried to surrender and possibly six who were already surrendering or had surrendered, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on May 2.
Russian forces operating in Syria have been accused by the U.N. and other organizations of committing war crimes in the country, including the intentional bombing of hospitals and the usage of "double-tap" attacks, a tactic Russia has repeated in Ukraine.
The list is already being processed by the Russian authorities, according to Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Citing testimony from people released from Russian captivity, Ukraine's UN envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya said that over 50 percent of detainees suffered torture, rape, or other forms of sexual violence.
Russian troops opened fire at a civilian car in the border area of Chernihiv Oblast, killing a man, Ukraine's National Police reported on April 13.
Key developments on April 9: * Ukraine hits aviation training center in Russia's Voronezh Oblast, source says * Russian attacks against 3 Ukrainian regions kill 2, injure 10 * Germany to deliver 20 additional armored vehicles to Ukraine * IAEA: Drone attack reported on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant's training center * Prosecutors investigating executions of
The National Police in Mykolaiv Oblast identified a 28-year-old Russian military mechanic from the 205th Motorized Infantry Brigade, who reportedly tortured civilians, the police said on April 8.
The Prosecutor General's Office has opened an investigation into a video that purportedly shows Russian soldiers shooting three captured and unarmed Ukrainian servicemen in Kherson Oblast, the office announced on April 7.
The Netherlands pledged to make available 10 million euros ($10.8 million) to help Ukraine investigate Russian war crimes, Dutch Foreign Minister Bruins Slot said on April 2 at the Restoring Justice for Ukraine Conference.
Over 40 countries called for a special tribunal to hold Russia accountable for war crimes committed in Ukraine at the Restoring Justice for Ukraine conference held in the Netherlands on April 2.
The UN’s International Court of Justice, or ICJ, is currently hearing cases related to genocide in Ukraine as the country looks to seek justice for Russia’s ongoing crimes against it. Experts interviewed by the Kyiv Independent are worried that the Hague-based court, which is the principal judicial organ
In two years of total war, Moscow has tried every trick to keep the death march going. It held a draft, expanded state-sponsored mercenary companies, recruited convicted prisoners, integrated proxies from occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and forcibly conscripted Ukrainians in occupied territories and Ukrainian POWs. Lately, Russia has seized
In the spring of 2022, right after Russia’s atrocities in Bucha were exposed, several Western leaders uttered the term “genocide.” U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Colombian President Ivan Duque, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did so in short succession, albeit
"Genocide is the crime of crimes. So, is Russia committing one in Ukraine?" The new documentary by the Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigations Unit, "Destroy, in Whole or in Part," debuted on YouTube on March 22.
Ukraine has collected pretrial information on over 128,000 victims of war crimes, Veronika Plotnikova, the head of the Coordinating Center for Support of Victims and Witnesses of the Prosecutor Generals Office, said on air on March 18.
Russian torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) is “widespread and systematic” and shows a “blatant disregard for human dignity,” a report from a United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said on March 15.
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