--- title: 'War crimes' url: 'https://redpill.akuadora.net/background/war-crimes' markdown: 'https://redpill.akuadora.net/background/war-crimes.md' date: '2026-10-22' description: 'The documented war crimes of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Bucha, Mariupol, torture, deported children, attacks on the power grid, and the ICC arrest warrants.' --- # War crimes ## Bucha Russian troops held the Kyiv suburb of **Bucha** for a month. When they left at the end of March 2022, the bodies of civilians lay in the streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs, some shot in the head. More than 400 murdered civilians were found in the town of Bucha alone, according to the Ukrainian police, and many more in the surrounding district. Satellite images taken while the town was still occupied show bodies lying in the same places, which destroyed Russia’s claim that the scene was staged after it left. The UN, Human Rights Watch and journalists from many countries documented killings, torture and rape in towns across the Kyiv region. ## Mariupol For almost three months Russia besieged **Mariupol** and pounded it with artillery and bombs. On 9 March 2022 it hit a maternity hospital. On 16 March it bombed the **drama theatre**, where hundreds of civilians were sheltering and where the word **“CHILDREN”** was painted in giant letters on the ground on both sides, visible from the air. How many died in the theatre is disputed: an Associated Press investigation estimated close to 600, Amnesty International thought the number was lower. Both concluded that Russia bombed it, and Amnesty called it a war crime. Across the city the dead number in the thousands; many were buried in courtyards and mass graves, and the true total is still unknown. ## “It wasn’t us” After every massacre Russia says it was staged or that Ukraine did it. Independent investigators keep proving otherwise. **Bellingcat** showed that Russia does use the Tochka-U missile that hit the crowd at **Kramatorsk** station in April 2022, which Moscow denied. When a missile hit the **Okhmatdyt** children’s hospital in Kyiv in July 2024, Russia blamed a Ukrainian air-defence missile; Bellingcat matched the videos to a Russian **Kh-101** cruise missile, and the UN monitoring mission came to the same conclusion. ## Torture and “filtration” In every area Russia occupies, investigators find the same pattern: torture chambers in police stations and basements, people taken from their homes who disappear, men from occupied towns sent through “filtration camps”. The UN’s **Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine** has concluded that Russian forces committed torture and enforced disappearances on such a scale that they amount to **crimes against humanity**. Returned Ukrainian prisoners of war overwhelmingly report torture in Russian captivity, and the UN has documented executions of Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered. ## Children Ukraine has identified more than **19,500 children** taken from occupied areas to Russia or deeper into occupied territory, many of them put up for adoption by Russian families and given Russian passports. Taking children from an occupied people is a war crime, and it is one of the acts listed in the Genocide Convention. On **17 March 2023** the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for **Vladimir Putin** and his children’s rights commissioner **Maria Lvova-Belova** for the unlawful deportation of children. Putin can no longer travel to the more than 120 countries that are members of the ICC without risking arrest. ## Freezing the civilians Since October 2022 Russia has fired thousands of missiles and drones at power stations, substations and heating plants, mostly in autumn and winter. The goal is not a military target: it is to leave millions of people without light, water and heat. In 2024 the ICC issued arrest warrants for two Russian commanders, and then for former defence minister **Sergei Shoigu** and chief of the general staff **Valery Gerasimov**, for these strikes on civilian infrastructure. ## Why it matters War crimes are not an accident of this war. They happen everywhere Russia occupies, they continue year after year, and the people who order them get promoted. That is the strongest argument against “just give Russia the land and make peace”: for the people who live there, Russian occupation means the basements, the filtration camps and the loss of their children. ## Sources - [UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine](https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/iicihr-ukraine/index) - [International Criminal Court: situation in Ukraine](https://www.icc-cpi.int/situations/ukraine), arrest warrants - [Bucha massacre (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucha_massacre) - [Human Rights Watch on the ICC warrants for Shoigu and Gerasimov](https://hrw.org/news/2024/06/26/new-icc-warrants-issued-ukraine-crimes) - [Mariupol theatre airstrike (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariupol_theatre_airstrike) - [Bellingcat: Russia’s Kramatorsk “facts” versus the evidence](https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2022/04/14/russias-kramatorsk-facts-versus-the-evidence/); on Okhmatdyt: [Babel](https://babel.ua/en/news/108858-elon-musk-s-x-marks-bellingcat-s-investigation-of-the-russian-x-101-strike-on-okhmatdyt-as-dangerous-content) and [Ukrainska Pravda on the UN finding](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/07/09/7464837/) - [Human Rights Watch: Ukraine](https://www.hrw.org/europe/central-asia/ukraine) [← All background stories](https://redpill.akuadora.net/background) --- ## Navigation - Parent: [Background](https://redpill.akuadora.net/background.md) - Previous: [MH17](https://redpill.akuadora.net/background/mh17.md) - Next: [Why this is Europe’s war too](https://redpill.akuadora.net/background/why-europe.md)