Chloropicrin is often used as an herbicide. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), exposure to its vapors can cause severe irritation to the skin, eyes, and, if inhaled, internal organs.
Since last December, Russian forces likely executed at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers who tried to surrender and possibly six who were already surrendering or had surrendered, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on May 2.
Russian forces operating in Syria have been accused by the U.N. and other organizations of committing war crimes in the country, including the intentional bombing of hospitals and the usage of "double-tap" attacks, a tactic Russia has repeated in Ukraine.
The list is already being processed by the Russian authorities, according to Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
Citing testimony from people released from Russian captivity, Ukraine's UN envoy Sergiy Kyslytsya said that over 50 percent of detainees suffered torture, rape, or other forms of sexual violence.
Russian troops opened fire at a civilian car in the border area of Chernihiv Oblast, killing a man, Ukraine's National Police reported on April 13.
Key developments on April 9: * Ukraine hits aviation training center in Russia's Voronezh Oblast, source says * Russian attacks against 3 Ukrainian regions kill 2, injure 10 * Germany to deliver 20 additional armored vehicles to Ukraine * IAEA: Drone attack reported on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant's training center * Prosecutors investigating executions of
The National Police in Mykolaiv Oblast identified a 28-year-old Russian military mechanic from the 205th Motorized Infantry Brigade, who reportedly tortured civilians, the police said on April 8.
The Prosecutor General's Office has opened an investigation into a video that purportedly shows Russian soldiers shooting three captured and unarmed Ukrainian servicemen in Kherson Oblast, the office announced on April 7.
The Netherlands pledged to make available 10 million euros ($10.8 million) to help Ukraine investigate Russian war crimes, Dutch Foreign Minister Bruins Slot said on April 2 at the Restoring Justice for Ukraine Conference.
Over 40 countries called for a special tribunal to hold Russia accountable for war crimes committed in Ukraine at the Restoring Justice for Ukraine conference held in the Netherlands on April 2.
The UN’s International Court of Justice, or ICJ, is currently hearing cases related to genocide in Ukraine as the country looks to seek justice for Russia’s ongoing crimes against it. Experts interviewed by the Kyiv Independent are worried that the Hague-based court, which is the principal judicial organ
In two years of total war, Moscow has tried every trick to keep the death march going. It held a draft, expanded state-sponsored mercenary companies, recruited convicted prisoners, integrated proxies from occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, and forcibly conscripted Ukrainians in occupied territories and Ukrainian POWs. Lately, Russia has seized
In the spring of 2022, right after Russia’s atrocities in Bucha were exposed, several Western leaders uttered the term “genocide.” U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Colombian President Ivan Duque, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did so in short succession, albeit
"Genocide is the crime of crimes. So, is Russia committing one in Ukraine?" The new documentary by the Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigations Unit, "Destroy, in Whole or in Part," debuted on YouTube on March 22.
Ukraine has collected pretrial information on over 128,000 victims of war crimes, Veronika Plotnikova, the head of the Coordinating Center for Support of Victims and Witnesses of the Prosecutor Generals Office, said on air on March 18.
Russian torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) is “widespread and systematic” and shows a “blatant disregard for human dignity,” a report from a United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said on March 15.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office charged two Russian military servicemen for allegedly shooting a civilian in Kyiv Oblast's Bucha in 2022, killing the person on the spot, prosecutors said on March 5.
I started the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III" video game campaign on the evening of Nov. 10, 2023, in my apartment in Kyiv with the aim of finishing it in a single night. I was two hours in when Star Wars star Mark Hamill’s familiar voice let out
Working alongside investigators and prosecutors on sexual and gender-based crimes is a horrific experience. It involves listening to, reading, and hearing accounts of unimaginable suffering in sickening detail. To support the work of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Mobile Justice Teams (MJTs) comprised of Ukrainian and international experts were
Editor’s Note: This story contains descriptions of graphic scenes. “My brain will desperately want to forget all this,” narrates journalist Mstyslav Chernov over footage he filmed of city workers adding bodies to a mass grave in Mariupol, “but the camera will not let it happen.” At the start of
The Ukrainian priest Stepan Podolchak was kidnapped from his home two days earlier by Russian forces, representatives from Kalanchak's military administration told the Suspilne media outlet.
WARNING: The story contains graphic descriptions. When the neighbor told her what happened to her brothers, Tetiana Zahatna's howl echoed across the village. The twins had stepped out of the house earlier. Then she heard the shooting. Though Russian forces never occupied the village of Mokhnatyn in Chernihiv Oblast, their
Among the Russian camps for Ukrainian prisoners of war, the most notorious one is Olenivka, in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast. This prison-turned-camp became infamous due to reports of abuse and torture inflicted upon its prisoners. Who runs this prison?
In the early days of the full-scale invasion as Russian troops were occupying large swaths of territory outside of Kyiv, one local village resident was relieved to see what he thought were Ukrainian troops. The resident, Ivan Drozd, shouted the common Ukrainian salute "Slava Ukraini!" (Glory to Ukraine!) to the
Kirill Popov, the first deputy head of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service's Moscow branch, is likely to have overseen the work of the Olenivka POW camp, located in the occupied parts of Donetsk Oblast.
Over the past week, the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), a non-governmental organization founded by Amal and George Clooney, filed three cases with German federal prosecutors to investigate crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Submitted on Oct. 26, the cases rely on absolute universal jurisdiction in Germany, which allows
“It is not considered a war crime if you had fun,” reads graffiti left by Russian soldiers in the backroom of a bar in the village of Velyka Komyshuvakha, located in the Izium district of Kharkiv Oblast. Before being liberated, the area was occupied by Russian forces for six months
One thought helped Yevhen Mezhevyi overcome the ordeal of Russian captivity – the thought of his three young children. Single father Mezhevyi, 40, was captured by Russian troops at a checkpoint when he and his children were fleeing their war-torn hometown of Mariupol last spring. For 45 days, Mezhevyi was kept
The Kyiv Independent’s findings point to the systemic and deliberate nature of child murders by the Russian military in Ukraine. Our in-depth investigation allowed us to identify those responsible for the killing of a child.
Editor's Note: The story is based on the documentary “Bullet Holes,” published by the Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigations Unit. On a cold March morning, the Mahdyk family bundled themselves into their minivan. Their village near Kyiv was occupied, and they couldn’t bear staying there any longer. The family
The Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigation Unit established the names of Russian-controlled officials who took part in the abduction and followed the paths of families who risked their lives to bring their children back.
