The Truth Hounds association has looked into the attack on an administrative building in this city in southern Ukraine, which it attributes directly to the Russian army. But the case could take years to land on a judge’s desk.
The strike took place around 8:35 a.m. Tea time for the employees of the headquarters of the regional administration of Mykolaiv (south-western Ukraine), who had no chance of getting to safety. On this morning of March 29, 2022, the imposing building had just opened its doors. And, in a fraction of a second, a missile pulverized the north wing of the building. Nine floors collapsed. The explosion took away the emblem of the Republic of Ukraine, perched on the building, and left a gaping hole in its facade.
The human toll is very heavy: 37 people killed and 34 others injured. Vitaliy Kim, governor of the region, narrowly escaped the tragedy. “My office was hit, they were aiming at my window”assures franceinfo the one who was not on the scene that morning. “I got up too late”, he admits, aware that this alarm clock failure certainly saved his life. Like his fellow survivors and the inhabitants of the region, the manager is now demanding “Sanctions”.
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This is the objective set by the members of Truth Hounds (“the sleuths of truth” in French), a Ukrainian NGO which investigates alleged war crimes. “Our surveillance network was on high alert, and footage of the gigantic hole quickly flooded social media.”, recalls Maryna Slobodyanuk, project manager within the association. After a quick examination of the amateur images, she then embarks on an investigation that will last five months.
Field missions and 3D reconstruction
When it took up the case in early April 2022, Truth Hounds already had numerous investigations underway. “We did not wait for the great Russian invasion to start working, recalls Maryna Slobodyanuk. Since 2014 and the outbreak of the conflict in the Donbass [entre armée ukrainienne et séparatistes prorusses]we have analyzed about forty reports of war crimes. For the attack of Mykolayiv, six people are detached, that is to say a good part of the permanent team of Truth Hounds. On its site, the NGO camouflages the identity of its field employees and offers photos of dogs instead of the traditional portraits, “as a precaution”. Because behind these pretext images hide researchers, psychologists and connoisseurs of the different front lines.
“Investigators go to sometimes very dangerous areas, and can be targets for the Russian army or separatists.”
Maryna Slobodyanuk, project manager for the NGO Truth Houndsat franceinfo
While bombings and clashes continue to rage across Ukraine, the NGO is actively preparing its visit to Mykolaiv, in conjunction with the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), an organization based in Brussels. The trip looks dangerous. “The area was under heavy artillery fire almost every day, remembers the project manager. We heard them once there, every night we were there.”
On May 21, 2022, the heavy lifting can finally begin: interviews with witnesses to the attack, inspection of the ruins, meetings with local prosecutors and investigators… Grappling with the Russian military and the many parallel challenges of war , the authorities of the Mykolaiv region are often overwhelmed. “We wanted to hear their findings and see how much we could help each other”, explains Maryna Slobodyanuk, about the official investigators. Thanks to its own experts, Truth Hounds, for example, maps the building from every angle, before producing an edifying 3D model.
In order to verify whether the case ticks the boxes of a war crime according to international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions, the NGO obtains the list of victims from the military administration. Among the dead are seventeen civil servants and two employees of the commercial court. Sixteen military personnel, assigned to the security of the building, also lost their lives. The last two people killed by the strike worked in connection with the town hall. “The presence of civilians and the very nature of the government building, which is to meet the needs of the population, (…) mean that this place could not be considered a military target”argues Truth Hounds in its investigation report.
“The strike did not take place at night, or when the building was empty, tip Maryna Slobodyanuk. It occurred during business hours, and deliberately targeted civilians. This is a particularly heinous war crime.” Despite these accusations, which the NGO takes up in a substantiated way in its report, the Russian army has never commented on or claimed responsibility for this bombardment.
To go further, the NGO is also trying to find out if this building could have been used as a meeting place for military operations in the days preceding the attack. Interviews conducted with witnesses reveal that this was not the case, and that only an armored vehicle was posted about fifty meters from the entrance to the administrative headquarters, in order to carry out road checks. Another eyewitness also reports that the missile hit the facade between the third and fourth floors, precisely where the offices of the governor and the president of the regional council are. Then opens the second stage of the investigation: establishing the circumstances of the strike.
“The most difficult thing is to determine where the missile was fired from”
In the hours following the bombardment, a video showing the supposed impact of the missile was shared by Governor Vitaliy Kim, who was very active on social networks. To verify its authenticity, Truth Hounds investigators will inspect the site using a drone and confirm that the footage was indeed filmed by a surveillance camera. The latter, installed on the roof of a neighboring building, overlooks the regional headquarters and is “at a height of about 80 meters”. Shot in high definition, these images show a flying object approaching the building at high speed, slightly descending, causing a powerful blast and then thick billows of smoke or dust.
According to the experts consulted by the NGO, the quality of the video is sufficient to determine that the device filmed on March 29, 2022 is a cruise missile, recognizable by its side fins. Since Ukraine got rid of its long-range missiles in the 1990s, the craft can only be Russian, concludes Truth Hounds. Based on an independent ballistic investigation, which includes the analysis of debris found on site, the NGO assumes that it is a Kalibr type cruise missile, generally weighing more than a ton. As proof of this, she points to the use of at least 30 such missiles, fired in the area by Russia between mid-March and the end of April 2022 – half of which were shot down by the army. Ukrainian. But this conclusion differs from that of the authorities, for whom it was rather a slightly modified Iskander missile.
“The type of missile used is still debated, and [identifier le bon modèle] can upset our whole vision of the attack”, says Maryna Slobodyanuk. Iskander missiles are indeed generally fired from land, using a self-propelled gun, while Kalibr are launched from ships or submarines. In doubt, and faced with the imposing Truth Hounds file, the authorities end up ordering a second expertise, which is still in progress.
“The most difficult thing is to determine where the missile was fired from”, notes Maryna Slobodyanuk. Maximum range, route, ability to change trajectory: the experts twist and turn each scenario in all directions. “Our hypothesis is that it is most certainly a shot from a Russian ship stationed in the Black Sea”, says the project manager. Launched from the shore, a Kalibr missile could very well have hit a target 40 km away, making a turn at the end of its course. It remains to be determined which ship, and which officer of the Russian army, could have ordered such a shot.
A very uncertain trial
To support its report, Truth Hounds could not count on satellite images. “On the day of the attack, the providers we have access to did not have photos of this area“, regrets the NGO. “So we had to organize another mission in the south of the Mykolaiv region to find eyewitnesses to the theft of the craft. And we succeeded”, continues Maryna Slobodyanuk. By studying amateur photos and reports from independent analysts, the NGO has also drawn up a list of ships likely to have fired the missile in question that day.
First, Truth Hounds’ suspicions fall on a Russian frigate: theAdmiral Essen. Involved in the bombardment of several Ukrainian cities such as Odessa, as pointed out by the Times (in English), this ship was maneuvering south of Mykolaiv that morning and could have launched a Kalibr missile at a speed of about 980 km/h, to hit its target between 2 and 3 minutes later. Always from public documents, in particular Russian sites specialized in the military field, Truth Hounds draws up a list, without accusing them, of 19 commanders and non-commissioned officers in charge of theAdmiral Essen and three other Russian warships active on the day of the strike.
“It is important for us to draw a wide circle of suspected sponsors, in order to be sure not to miss a suspect”, insists Maryna Slobodyanuk. It is then up to justice to do its job, because the official investigation is ongoing. Only, how soon will the case be dealt with? And by whom? “We are hopeful that the file will be heard once the final details have been settled, and that it will be through the Ukrainian system”, we want to believe at Truth Hounds. But, according to Yuriy Belusov, in charge of war crimes for Ukrainian justice, and quoted by the Polish site TVP (in English), no less than 50,000 war crimes cases are already piling up on the desk of the country’s attorney general. What push the families of the victims of Mykolaiv, always tried by the war, to arm themselves a little more patience.