“Unspeakable and deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians.” The organization Human Rights Watch reports abuses committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians, in a report published on Sunday, April 3 (link in English). Facts that the NGO qualifies as “apparent war crimes”.
They occurred between February 27 and March 14, in occupied areas of Chernihiv, Kharkiv and kyiv regions. Human Rights Watch, which interviewed ten witnesses or survivors, reported one case of repeated rapes, robberies and several cases of summary executions and threats of execution. Revelations which are in line, in recent days, with the discovery of mass graves and several hundred bodies of civilians in the kyiv region. According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova, the bodies of 410 civilians were found in areas recaptured from Russian forces.
Several summary executions
To obtain these revelations, Human Rights Watch conducted “detailed interviews with eyewitnesses, survivors and secondary witnesses”, says franceinfo Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of the NGO.
Among these documented crimes, the organization describes two summary executions which caused the death of seven Ukrainian civilians. The first took place in the village of Staryi Bykiv, in the Chernihiv region, on February 27. Three days after the start of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, Russian soldiers arrested six men from three different families and then executed them, according to testimonies collected by Human Rights Watch. The NGO interviewed Viktoria, the mother and sister-in-law of two of the victims: “The soldiers told us not to worry, that they would scare them a little and then let them go. We walked 50 meters…and we heard shots,” she confides. She will find their bodies the next day.
“They were lying there. There were gunshot wounds to their heads. Their hands were tied behind their backs. I looked at my son’s body, his pockets were empty.”
Viktoria, mother of a victimat Human Rights Watch
Less than a week later, on March 4 in Boutcha, northwest of kyiv, “Russian forces arrested five men and summarily executed one of them”, reports Human Rights Watch, based on the testimony of a teacher who saw the execution. This witness was forcibly taken by Russian soldiers to a town square, along with 40 other inhabitants. These civilians waited for several hours, then soldiers arrived with five men, ordering them to kneel.
“The Russian soldiers removed the t-shirts from these men. They shot one of them in the back of the neck. The man fell, women were screaming. The other four men remained kneeling.”
A woman who saw a summary executionat Human Rights Watch
According to this teacher, the civilians taken by force to this square remained for several more hours before being escorted home by the Russian soldiers. Five days later, “the body of the young man was still at the place where he had been killed”, said the witness.
Human Rights Watch adds that a Ukrainian man and his son were threatened with execution on March 4 in their village of Zabuchchya, on the outskirts of Irpin, after Russian soldiers found a hunting rifle and a bottle of gasoline in their garden. Two days later, Russian soldiers shot a woman and a 14-year-old girl in Vorzel as they came out of the basement where they had taken refuge, according to a man present at the scene. “Russian soldiers stormed that same basement and threw a smoke grenade inside. Several people panicked and fled outside, where Russian soldiers fired at them,” reports the organization.
A woman victim of repeated rapes
During its research, Human Rights Watch was able to collect the words of Olha (first name has been changed), a 31-year-old Ukrainian woman claiming to have been repeatedly raped and beaten by a Russian soldier in the village of Malaya Rohan, in the Kharkov region. The facts occurred on March 13, according to his testimony.
The young woman had taken refuge in the basement of a school with her 5-year-old daughter, her mother, her sister and her brother when a Russian soldier forced his way into the establishment. The soldier took her to a classroom on the second floor where, while pointing a gun at her, he ordered her to undress and then perform oral sex on him. The NGO mentions several forced relationships. According to the testimony of the victim, the soldier placed a knife under her throat, then wounded her with this weapon at the level of the neck and one cheek. He hit her with a book and slapped her several times, Olha said.
“While I was getting dressed, the soldier told me that he was Russian and that he was 20 years old. He said that I reminded him of a girl he had gone to school with.”
Ukrainian woman accuses Russian soldier of rapeat Human Rights Watch
The Russian soldier left school the next morning. The NGO was able to consult photographs corroborating Olha’s words, showing his injuries to the face and neck.
Cases under review
According to Human Rights Watch, “many Ukrainian civilians” also told “that the Russian forces were taking away food, firewood, clothing and other items such as chainsaws, axes and gasoline” in the areas they occupied.
The organization continues its investigative work in Ukraine. “We have received information, accusations regarding other executions and sexual violence”, confirms with franceinfo Fred Abrahams, deputy director of the program office at Human Rights Watch. Three accusations of sexual violence against Russian soldiers, in the Chernihiv region and in Mariupol, are being verified. The NGO is also trying to retrace the facts in Boutcha. A researcher from the NGO went there on Monday.
What will be the magnitude of “apparent war crimes” that Human Rights Watch is beginning to document in Ukraine? “Our report only documents a small number of crimes. We fear there are more“, points out Rachel Denber. His colleague Hugh Williamson, director of the Europe and Central Asia division, points to the case of the confirmed summary execution in Boutcha on March 4. “A month later we see these horrific images of hundreds of bodies. We don’t yet know how these people died, but we are concerned that the tactics identified in this case on March 4 may have continued for weeks.”