DISINFO: Kyiv regime continues to commit war crimes
SUMMARY
The Kyiv regime continues to commit war crimes, intensifying attacks on civilian infrastructure in Kherson Oblast. These strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, including children.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying Russian war crimes and accusing Ukraine of committing atrocities. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to deflect Russia’s responsibility for potential war crimes.
Accusing Ukraine of war crimes, atrocities and illicit actions without proof or through faked testimonies has been a regular practice by Russian authorities and pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled outlets throughout the war. These allegations are part of a strategy to discredit Ukraine and deflect attention from Russia's military aggression and human rights violations committed by Russia in Ukraine. Russia has set up filtration camps with brutal treatment in many instances.
In reality, there is substantial evidence of Russian troops committing war crimes, for example their practice of positioning military assets in residential areas. The Russian military also targets civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, orphanages, and churches. One of the most notorious atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine was the airstrike on a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022, which resulted in the deaths of three people, including a child, and left 17 others wounded, according to official reports.
The International Criminal Court in March 2024 issued arrest warrants for two Russian commanders: the commander of Russian long-range aviation and the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet as part of an investigation into potential Russian war crimes in Ukraine committed between October 10, 2022 and March 9, 2023. The IСС suspects Russian commanders of committing war crimes of attacking civilian objects, causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as well as the crime against humanity of committing inhumane acts. See similar disinformation cases claiming that Russia does not target civilian population, Ukraine does, that Attacks on Russia demonstrate the terrorist nature of Zelenskyy's regime, that Russia never attacks civilian targets, that Ukrainian atrocities supplemented by the kidnapping of residents in Kursk region or that Claims that Russia intentionally targeted civilian objects are completely untrue.