Russian military in Ukraine continues to ignore international law regulations. In particular, in September, the experts of the Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives recorded the following offense types:

• Intentional killings of civilians. New evidence of Russian aggression was discovered in the de-occupied regions during the exhumation and search for the deceased. As of September 9, it was found that 1,360 civilian casualties died during active hostilities in the Kyiv region. On September 23, the process of exhuming bodies in a mass burial in Izium, Kharkiv region, was completed. There were discovered remains of 215 women, 194 men, and five children.

• Deliberate attacks on the civilian population and targets. Compared to August, there have been no significant changes concerning the shelling. At the end of the month, the entire territory of Ukraine was under the threat of missile and bomb attacks. In most localities, air raid alerts ring several times a day. There were registered repeated missile attacks launched from the territory of the Russian Federation targeting former de-occupied border regions of Ukraine. Indiscriminate artillery shelling and missile attacks continued to affect towns and cities near active hostilities, as well as populated areas lying in the rear of Ukrainian troops.

• Furthermore, the aggressor resorted to extensive energy infrastructure facility shelling in September. For example, on September 11, the military shelled Zmiyiv TPP in the Kharkiv region. The Kharkiv Thermal Power Plant-5 also sustained a missile attack. As a result, five regions had no electricity. In the next month, the shelling of energy infrastructure facilities became massive. It led to serious energy supply issues. Region administrators, as well as energy supply companies, were forced to introduce rolling blackout schedules.

• Threats to high-risk buildings and facilities. The situation concerning the Zaporizhzhia NPP remains alarming. As was mentioned before, since July 3, Russian troops have set up a military base on the premises of the nuclear plant. At the start of September, the IAEA mission visited the occupied plant. The visit resulted in passing a resolution demanding that Russia "immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhia NPP and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine." Four days after the document was adopted, the Russians continued shelling the NPP.

• A threat to the natural environment. On September 7, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office reported criminal proceedings regarding ecocide due to the mass destruction of dolphins due to armed aggression. There were performed examinations and autopsies of porpoises and white-sided dolphins found on the coasts.

Read more about these and other recorded violations in the Digest:

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.