Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the military of the Russian Federation has been responsible for the systematic breaches of the laws of war on seven different counts. These breaches of international humanitarian law are articulated in the account of violations prepared by human rights activists of the NGO "Eastern Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives" (EUCCI). 

Through analysis of the events of recent weeks, human rights activists have documented the Russian military’s in systematically breach of international humanitarian law in Ukraine in respect of the following transgressions:

1) Violation of the principle of distinction and indiscriminate attacks (e.g. with respect to the attack on the building of the Drama Theatre in the besieged town of Mariupol);

2) Attacks on objects that are under special protection (e.g shelling of the territory of the PJSC ‘Sumykhimprom’ factory and resulting damage to an ammonia storage tank);

3) Destruction and seizure of property, looting (e.g. looting by Russian forces of the historical and cultural museum-reserve ‘Sadiba Popova’ in the Vasylivka district of Zaporizhia region);

4) The use of deprivation of access to food as a means to wage war, and restricting access to humanitarian aid (e.g. the blockade of Russian troops in Mariupol, which is believed to have impacted between 300-400,000 civilians);

5) Deportation and forced relocation of civilians in occupied territories (e.g. deportation of several thousand Mariupol residents by the Russian military to the territory of the Russian Federation);

6) Sexual violence (incidents of rape have been reported in the Kyiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia regions);

7) Enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention (e.g. detention by Russian forces of the Secretary of the City Council of Nova Kakhovka, Dmitry Vasiliev).

Furthermore, human rights activists have in addition recorded hundreds of other such violations of IHL, which are classified as war crimes under international law.

These crimes have been committed by the occupying forces of the Russian Federation in Kharkiv, Mariupol, Chernihiv, Hostomel, Vorzel, Severodonetsk, Rubіzhne, and other areas of Ukraine during the conflict to date.

Detailed explanations and examples of other types of violations can be read in the published digest.

The Eastern Ukrainian Center for Public Initiatives began documenting human rights violations committed from the commencement of the 2014 war in Ukraine.
Currently, the SCGI team is continuing the work it began in 2014 to further submit relevant materials to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Office of the Prosecutor General (Ukraine), international organizations and international commissions of inquiry to collect, document and prepare evidence to hold parties accountable for breaches of international humanitarian law and other crimes.