The Russian Federation does not reduce the scope of shelling of civilian objects, the number of reports of premeditated murder and sexual violence has increased, and the threat to peaceful nuclear facilities remains. These and other violations of IHL norms are reported in the Digest prepared by the Eastern Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives.
Human rights activists also note that every day the threat to the natural environment of Ukraine is increasing as a result of armed hostilities operations (air pollution, damage to ecosystems, water resources, etc.).
In the occupied territories, the trend of seizure and looting of property, which belongs to individuals and legal entities, the state and territorial communities remains unchanged. The range of types of looted property is quite diverse: from domestic robbery of the local population (cars, money, etc.), to the seizure of property of large companies in significant amounts (crops of agricultural enterprises, steel products of steel mills, goods and property complexes of supermarkets, etc.)
According to the data of EUCCI, starting from May, people in the occupied territories were actively directly or indirectly solicited to apply for Russian citizenship, while having positioned this as the only possible condition for establishing a normal life and further residency in the relevant territory (a condition for unhindered continuation of education, work, receiving pensions and social benefits, doing business, etc.). For example, according to the reports unconfirmed so far, occupation authorities are already putting forward obtaining a Russian passport as a condition for continuing to work in public sector institutions (schools, hospitals, etc.).
During May 2022, the practice of illegal arrests by the Russian military (military personnel of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Rosgvardiya, FSB, etc.) and keeping civilian population of the occupied territories in places of detention has continued. As before, illegal deprivation of freedom of people is carried out everywhere and is obviously part of the plan or policy of the Russian Federation in relation to certain segments of the civilian population of the occupied territories (journalists, public activists and bloggers, volunteers, entrepreneurs, participants in peaceful protests and other persons who do not support occupation).
Human rights activists of the EUCCI also note that they consider refusal of the Russian Federation to exfiltrate the defenders of Mariupol as a violation. In connection with the military situation in the area of Mariupol and generally around the "Azovstal" steel mill, the key thesis for the top military and political leadership of the Russian Federation should be an inadmissibility of destroying people at "Azovstal", the need to save the lives of combatants on both sides of the conflict. The acceptance of terms and conditions of extraction with participation of a third neutral country was, in fact, a civilized and humane way to quickly end the armed confrontation for Mariupol.
Exfiltration is a military and political operation (procedure, event, method) consisting of the removal (evacuation) of people (civilians, military personnel) from enemy territory to a safe place.
The Eastern Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives documents human rights violations committed during the Russian armed aggression against Ukraine since 2014. The purpose of documentation is to present the collected materials to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, international commissions of investigation and other international organizations. The EUCCI provides free legal and other forms of assistance to certain categories of victims. For more information about the EUCCI, please visit the website of the organization: https://totalaction.org.ua/.
Human rights activists continue to record numerous incidents of similar and other violations of IHL that can be qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The earlier digests of human rights violations are available at the following links:
https://totalaction.org.ua/news/164