Russia is committing a crime against humanity with its incessant drone attacks, with which it pursues, hunts and expels from the homes of civilians living near the front line in Ukraine. This is stated in the report of the independent international investigative commission for Ukraine, which was published on Monday. TASR informs about it according to a report by Reuters and AFP.
- Russia carries out systematic drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
- The UN Commission has confirmed crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
- The attacks hit civilian objects, distribution points and infrastructure.
“The Russian authorities have systematically coordinated actions aimed at driving Ukrainian civilians from their places of residence through drone attacks, as well as deportations and resettlement,” said the commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council shortly after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Her latest 17-page report is based on interviews with 226 people, including victims, witnesses, aid workers and local authorities. In addition, hundreds of videos found on the Internet and social networks were verified.
According to the report, Russia has committed a crime against humanity in the form of murder in a much larger area than previously thought. In May, the commission determined that drone attacks on civilians were taking place on a 100-kilometer stretch on the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson region. Five months later, it expanded the scope of its conclusions to a 300-kilometer stretch of Ukrainian territory in the Dnepropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.
Attacks on civilian targets
The text describes how Russian drones with mounted cameras stalked civilians over long distances and in some cases dropped firebombs or explosives on them as they tried to find cover. One Kherson woman was chased by a drone as she parked her car, then attacked and injured while seeking refuge in her garage. On the same day, two more drones arrived and hit her house, from which she then left.
“For more than a year, Russian armed forces have been conducting drone strikes against a wide range of civilian targets,” the report said, including people, homes or other buildings, humanitarian aid distribution sites and critical energy infrastructure.
Attacks on rescuers
According to AFP, the independent commission, which is not recognized by Russia, stressed that the attacks “forced thousands of people to flee” and also targeted firefighters, medics and other rescue workers. This deprived the local population of emergency services where they are most needed.
In addition to “deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, inhumane treatment and violations of human rights,” according to her, Moscow also committed “war crimes” by deporting and resettling civilians from the occupied parts of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region.
“There is no doubt that the drone operators are acting deliberately,” Erik Mose, chairman of the investigative commission, told Reuters. “They really do chase people, whether they’re in their gardens, at home or on the street,” he added.
Russia denies that it is deliberately targeting civilians in Ukraine, although its forces have killed thousands of them since the invasion began. Ukraine has also hit civilian infrastructure in Russia and parts of its territory that it does not control, but on a much smaller scale, Reuters wrote.
