Group Analysis of Interviews Conducted by the Centre (till August 15)

Thus, 36% of eye-witnesses interviewed (372) were of 31 to 45 years of age; 23% were from 46 to 60 (239);23 % were 60+ (237); 13 % were under 30 (133).

In 47 cases, eye-witnesses wished to remain anonymous and did not give their consent to collection of personal data to be transferred to law-enforcement. That is why the data on their age is not available.

In 64% of cases (662 witnesses in total) and in 50% of cases registered in the period of 15.05-15.08 (83 eye-witnesses), the interviewees said they had seen the members of the military on the territories referred to in the accounts but in most cases, the interviewees did not know the names or code names of the military, except for the interviewees who stayed in captivity or were illegally detained. The category of the members of the military included the regular troops of the RF identified by eye-witnesses by their chevrons and by appearance typical for certain ethnicities from the RF. The interviewees also mentioned the presence of members of the so-called self-proclaimed “people’s republics” who arrived from ORDLO territories (occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts), or the military machinery marked with letters “z” and “v”. Some respondents did not answer the question about the presence of the military.

Territorial Affiliation of the Interviewees

Types of War Crimes Identified During the Preliminary Interviews

Annotation of the war crime types for the period from May, 15, to August, 15, 2023 (with support from the UK Government)

Almost all interviewees said they had been eye-witnesses or heard about the commission of several types of war crimes in the settlement. In most cases, it was about the damage or destruction of property, such over the period of 15.05-18.05, 151 respondents testified about the destruction or damage to property of other persons, and а 96 interviewees reported about their own property affected, mostly due to air strikes. In the territories closely located to combat they reported the shelling from other types of weapon (such as in Marganets they mentioned the GRAD systems). However, there were also cases of flooding caused by the blast of Kakhovka dam. For the most part, of 43 cases of deaths and injuries registered during 15.05-18.08, they were caused by the shelling of the territories. All eye-witnesses from Mariupol (6 persons) reported about the large number of civilian deaths they saw. One of the survivors of Kyiv region occupation got under the tank in the nighttime, and had her clavicle injured. A son of one of the witnesses got disabled because of the shot into his leg (the military were shooting children’s legs).

The shelling of settlements closely located to hostility areas cast them into the brink of humanitarian disaster, according to eye-witnesses (with no water, electricity, or heating supply). Most interviewees (116 cases) saw the fragments of shells in the settlements and close to residential buildings.

In 49 cases over the period of 15.05-18.05, eye-witnesses reported about the damage or destruction of civilian facilities, including also most civilian facilities. They are 49 cases of culture and art institutions. For example, the eye-witnesses saw the destruction and damage in Sviatohirsk Lavra.

Eye-witnesses reported the fighting in residential neighbourhoods, the use of unauthorized weapons (29 cases).

In the occupied territories, the combat weapons were stationed in residential neighbourhoods (160 cases in the Center’s total activity, 28 cases registered in the period of 15.05-18.05).

Testimonies of eye-witnesses about events during the occupation

A large share of testimonies is related to the territories that used to stay (or are still) under the occupation.

Occupying authorities detained pro-Ukrainian local residents,  such as family members of the military members and peaceful protesters. They subjected them to torture, and denied food (e.g., in Genichesk, there were 4 places where they kept people captive and tortured them). They forced the detained people to record videos where they asked for forgiveness and thanked Russia. One of the surviving women shared about her father who was brought to the point of having a stroke, after a week of such illegal detention.

Since the beginning of war, they started forceful mobilization on the territories of the so-called DPR. They enrolled men, even when they were not eligible for military service; they would collect them during street raids.

Entrepreneurs were given a week’s time to re-register their business according to Russian legislation. The property, in particular the apartments and houses of those who did not agree to do this, were forcibly transferred to Russian citizens, “seized for the need of the military administration of the Russian Federation.” Cars with Ukrainian registration were forced to re-register with Russian ones, and those who did not agree were constantly fined.

In the occupied territories, there were cases of obstruction to evacuation. People had to pay bribes to get access to evacuation. One of the female eye-witnesses had to pay USD 600 to be able to evacuate, whereas men had to pay USD 1,000. To leave the DPR territory, eye-witnesses had to undergo check-ups and interrogations from FSB staff. They checked their telephones and luggage. They checked for tattoos that people had; they scrutinized them and asked about the meaning of tattoos, and about their political positions. Eye-witnesses reported that not all people undergoing the security checks managed to pass the filtration when leaving the occupied territory, or people might have been stopped at the border of the Russian Federation with Lithuania. In some cases, people had to wait for the check for over 24 hours. Eye-witnesses said they personally knew people who had to evacuate themselves from the areas flooded after the blast at Kahkhovka dam, with no support from the occupying authorities.

Besides, there was shortage of medications in the occupied territories. One of the eye-witnesses said she did not have a chance to treat her son with disability, which made her leave. In Irpin, the Russian military fired the military hospital, threw grenades directly into the windows, beat and shot soldiers listed as ATO participants.

During the occupation, Russian soldiers were searching the houses of civilians, stole and damaged their property, squatted in their homes themselves or put in Russian citizens, mostly families of the military. They pillaged the civilian infrastructure facilities (such as in Genichesk, the military scooped out and took away even the paving blocks from the sidewalks).  Moreover, they took away private vehicles from civilians, and never returned them.

The occupying authorities dispersed the anti-occupation peaceful protests; local population were forced into accepting Russian citizenship. When organizing the pseudo-referenda, they walked door-to-door with ballot boxes and forced people to vote. Children were made to go to Russian schools. When the parents did not agree, they were threatened to take away their children and deprive them of parenthood.

After the blast on Kakhovka dam, some cities lost water supply. In Oleshky, immediately after the occupation, there came a shortage of food supplies, including bread. Among those interviewed are witnesses whose homes became unfit to live in as a result of flooding.

Witnesses from Makiivka, Donetsk (the territory occupied since 2014) became eyewitnesses of self-fire in the city by artillery of the DNR or the Russian Federation, which was placed in landings near residential buildings.