The scale of alleged war crimes in the Kherson region turned out to be greater than in the Kyiv region

The scale of the investigated war crimes committed by Russian troops in the Kherson region is much larger than in the Kyiv region, Reuters reports citing Ukrainian law enforcement officials. In their opinion, this is due to the fact that the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region was under occupation longer than the Kyiv region.

Details. Of the 50,000 reports of war crimes registered by the Ukrainian authorities, 7,700 are in the Kherson region, Yury Belousov, head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in the Armed Conflict in the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, told the agency. At least 540 civilians are missing in the region, he added.

• In the Kherson region, authorities found more than 80 bodies, most of which were civilians. More than 50 people died from gunshot wounds or artillery shelling. Hundreds of bodies of civilians were also found in other regions of the country that were occupied by Russia. Including more than 800 bodies of civilians found in the Kharkiv region, where investigators had more time to conduct investigative actions: Ukraine returned most of the region back in September.
• Reuters tells the story of Oksana Minenko, a 44-year-old resident of Kherson. Her husband served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and died on the first day of the war. Minenko told Reuters that she was repeatedly detained and tortured by the Russian military. During several interrogations in the spring of 2022, her hands were dipped in boiling water, her nails pulled out, and they were beaten in the face with rifle butts, Minenko said. Subsequently, the woman required plastic surgery on her face to hide the effects of torture.
• Ukrainian authorities are conducting pre-trial investigations into cases of illegal detention of more than 13 thousand people across the country, 1.9 thousand of whom reported ill-treatment during detention, Belousov said.
• The Prosecutor General's Office also identified 70 torture suspects and filed 30 related charges, Belousov added. According to him, most of the suspects are low-ranking military ranks, but among them are “senior officers, in particular colonels and lieutenant colonels,” as well as high-ranking officials of the pro-Russian DPR and LPR.
• The scale and typological similarity of war crimes committed by Russian forces give the impression of "a broader criminal policy coming from the leadership" and targeting the civilian population, Nigel Povoas, a British lawyer who leads a team of Western lawyers helping Kiev with investigations, told the agency. Andrey Kovalenko, chief prosecutor of the region, also reported to Reuters about the systematic torture of civilians by the Russian military in the Kherson region.

Context. In October, the UN Commission of Inquiry into Violations in Ukraine published its first report analyzing war crimes committed in the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions in February and March. The commission reported that the responsibility for the vast majority of documented crimes lies with the Russian military.

• Russia denies allegations of war crimes.
• In addition to the Ukrainian authorities, the International Criminal Court in The Hague is investigating crimes in Ukraine. Kiev noted that the ICC can consider cases of specific war crimes and judge only those directly responsible for them, which will make it difficult to prosecute high-ranking officials. Therefore, Ukraine advocates the creation of a special tribunal, which will make it possible to hold the Russian leadership accountable as well.