RUSSIAN WAR CRIMES AND HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS IN UKRAINE

RUSSIAN WAR CRIMES AND HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATIONS IN THE WAR AGAINST UKRAINE

IRINA MIROCHNIK

Summary update as of January 05, 2023

The use of weapons of mass destruction against civilians is a crime against humanity and a violation of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949.

By killing civilians, the aggressor’s forces continue to commit crimes against humanity as defined by the Statute of the International Military Tribunal and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, cynically disregarding all the requirements of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

According to these norms, deliberate attacks on civilians who are not directly involved in hostilities are equated to war crimes.

The taking of civilian hostages is a direct violation of Articles 3 and 34 of the Geneva Convention with regard to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

As of January 05, 2023, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 452 children were killed and more than 877 children have been injured. Due to the active hostilities in affected regions, there is no possibility to inspect the areas of shelling and destruction.

In Ukraine, 5 civilians were killed on January 04, and 8 more were injured. This was announced by the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko based on the data of the regional military administrations.

Donetsk and Luhansk Region

During the day of Jan 04, as a result of Russian shelling of Donetsk region, six private houses, two shops and equipment at an infrastructure facility were damaged in Kurakhove. In Bakhmut, two people died and another person was injured, and in Chasiv Yar, a high-rise building was destroyed, four houses and a hospital were damaged. A five-story building was damaged in Soledar.

This was reported by the head of the local regional military administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko.

In total, eight settlements of the Donetsk region were damaged by shelling of the Russian occupiers last day. This is reported by the National Police in the Donetsk region. 13 civilian objects were destroyed and damaged – residential buildings, shops, transformers.

On January 5, Russian invaders again shelled the private sector of the city of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region. This was reported by Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Windows, roofs, facades of private houses are damaged. The heating network was also damaged.

As a result of the hostilities, Bakhmut was destroyed by more than 60 percent,

Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.

Dnipro and Region

Yevhen Yevtushenko, the head of the Nikopol district military administration, said that during the day and evening of January 4, the occupiers shelled the city of Nikopol and the territories of Myrove and Marganets communities twice. One resident of Nikopol received shrapnel wounds and was taken to the hospital in serious condition. Residential buildings, power lines, infrastructure facilities were damaged in the Myrove community and the city of Marganets.

In the city of Nikopol, a fire occurred as a result of the shelling. Nineteen private houses, three commercial buildings, a passenger car, communal educational and sports facilities, and power lines were damaged. A private house and the outbuilding were completely destroyed.

The head of the regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko, said that a 64-year-old man, wounded as a result of shelling in Nikopol on January 4, died in the hospital. According to the head of the region, the man had a severe chest wound.

Kharkiv and Region

The police exhumed the body of a child who died as a result of the military aggression of the occupiers in the Kharkiv region. According to the National Po- lice, a 6-year-old resident of the town of Izium came under fire in the yard of his house and received injuries incompatible with life. According to the parents, the child died on March 22.

Kherson and Region

On January 5, the Russian military shelled Beryslav in the Kherson region. The whole family died because of this shelling – husband, wife and their 12-year-old son. The projectile hit their house, reported Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

In the morning of January 5, the Russian army shelled Chornobayivka and Komyshany in the Kherson region: four people were injured, the head of the regional military administration Yanushevich said. Damaged houses, cars, agricultural premises, power lines and gas pipelines.

On January 5, Russian troops attacked the central part of Kherson and hit a residential building. A 20-year-old man died of his injuries on the spot, the head of the local regional military administration said.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, on January 4, a 17-year-old boy was injured as a result of enemy artillery fire in the village of Vesele, Kherson region.

The Russian occupying forces shelled the territory of the Kherson region 41 times last day, January 4. Shelling was carried out from tube artillery, MLRSs, mortars and tanks. This was reported by Yaroslav Yanushevych.

Kherson was attacked by the Russian army 9 times — the residential quarters of the city were shelled again. Enemy shells hit private and apartment buildings. Yesterday, three people were injured in varying degrees of severity due to Russian shelling.

Zaporizhzhia and Region

In the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian military shelled civilian infrastructure in the area of 15 settlements over the past day. This is reported by the Zaporizhzhia re- gional military administration. 16 reports were received about the destruction of houses (apartments) of citizens and infrastructure objects as a result of shelling by Russian military personnel.

On the morning of January 5, Russian troops shelled the Stepnohirsk community.

As a result of the shelling, two people died and three were wounded, including, according to preliminary information, two employees of the village council, who were delivering firewood to people for heating. This was announced by the head of the regional military administration Oleksandr Starukh.

Confirmed: Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Office of the Prosecutor General, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs, State Emergency Service, National Police, relevant city and town councils and regional state administrations, Government Office for the Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine.

[Writer Irina Mirochnik is the President at IMMER Group & Doctor of Philosophy in Law(PhD)]

06-01-2023

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