Status: 06.05.2022 2:20 p.m
Indiscriminate executions and attacks on residential areas: Amnesty International has documented alleged war crimes by Russian soldiers near Kyiv. The organization demands convictions up to the top of the chain of command.
Amnesty International has issued a report on alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The human rights organization said that numerous war crimes could be proven on the approximately 40 pages of Russian troops in Ukraine.
“In a rare, if not historic, move, Amnesty International denounced Russia’s unlawful use of force as a violation of the UN Charter and as an act of aggression,” said the organization’s secretary-general, Agnès Callamard, at the presentation in Kyiv.
“Conscious Choices”
The report, titled “He’s Not Coming Back: War Crimes in Northwest Areas of Kyiv Oblast,” documents more than 40 unlawful airstrikes on Borodyanka and extrajudicial executions in other towns and villages, including Bucha, Andriivka, Zdvyzhivka and Worsel.
“We know that the crimes against people living in the Kyiv area are not just anecdotal, accidental or unintentional,” Callamard said. Rather, they were conscious decisions. The crimes committed are unacceptable and not subject to any logic. The organization called for all those responsible in the Russian armed forces to be brought to justice for the crimes committed in the region north-west of Kyiv.
Disproportionate and indiscriminate
At least 40 civilians were killed in disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks in Borodyanka, the report said. An entire residential area was devastated and thousands of people were made homeless.
Amnesty documented 22 cases of unlawful killings by Russian forces in Bucha and several other towns and villages northwest of Kyiv. Most of the executions are believed to have been extrajudicial.
Extrajudicial executions in international armed conflicts constitute war crimes, Amnesty emphasized. The same applies to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks carried out with criminal intent.
Image: dpa
First hand reports
During 12 days of research on the ground in Ukraine, Amnesty staff interviewed 45 people who were “direct witnesses” of the killings or “knew about them firsthand”. In addition, Amnesty spoke to 39 people who had “directly witnessed” or “had first-hand knowledge” of air raids on residential buildings that violate international law. Moscow denies any responsibility for the crimes.
Callamard said her organization supports the victims’ relatives in their “demands for justice.” Amnesty called on the Ukrainian authorities and the International Criminal Court in The Hague to “ensure that evidence is secured that could enable future prosecutions of war crimes”.
Hold those responsible accountable
It is “vital that all those responsible, including those at the top of the chain of command, be brought to justice,” stressed Callamard, including commanders and civilian leaders such as ministers and heads of state, “if they knew of or are aware of war crimes committed by their forces.” should have, but did not try to stop them or punish those responsible”.