‘Several thousand’ war crimes committed by Russia in Donbas, says Ukraine

Amid Russia’s push for the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, after its failure to capture both Kyiv and Kharkiv — Ukraine’s capital and largest city.

And second-largest city, respectively — a senior official of the strife-torn country said on Tuesday Kyiv had identified ‘several thousand’ suspected war crimes committed by Moscow’s troops in the region.

“Of course, we started a few thousand cases about what we see in Donbas,” said Iryna Venediktova, Kyiv’s chief prosecutor.

Venediktova, who was speaking to media in The Hague, further said, “If we speak about war crimes, it’s about possible transfer of people. We started several cases about possible transfer of children, adult people to different parts of the Russian federation.”

“Then, of course, we can speak about torturing people, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure,” she also said.

However, the Ukrainian prosecutor general, who was in the Dutch city for a meeting with her global counterparts, did not specify exactly how many cases of alleged Russian war crimes they came across in Donbas.

When asked how Ukrainian authorities identified ‘several thousand’ war crimes as some areas in the industrial region are controlled by Moscow, she said they interviewed evacuees and prisoners of war.

In total, Ukraine says it has identified more than 15,000 war crimes committed by Russian troops on its soil since the ongoing invasion began on February 24. As many as 200 to 300 such cases are taking place every day, Venediktova further said.

Kremlin, on the other hand, denies all charges of war crimes against its soldiers, including those related to Bucha, which it described as a ‘cynical false flag’ operation by Kyiv. However, in April, the alleged Bucha killings led to the suspension of Russia’s primary membership of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).