More than 71,000 Russian war crimes already recorded in Ukraine

“As of this morning, 71,147 war crimes were recorded over the past year,” Yuriy Belousov, Head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Conditions of Armed Conflict of the Prosecutor General’s Office, said during the press conference “International Military Tribunal: What has changed in a year?” at Ukrinform news agency.

He noted that the prosecutor’s office brought charges against 293 Russians. “These are persons whom we identified and found to be involved in the commission of a specific war crime. This is a wide range, starting from strikes on civilian objects, ending with sexual violence, murder of our citizens, torture, and other types of war crimes,” Belousov clarified.

The official said that the cases against 105 people were submitted to court, and national courts already passed 29 sentences in war crime cases.

As Belousov informed, technical assistance is involved while investigating war crimes. “The largest number of war crimes is the destruction of civilian objects of various kinds. For example, it takes much time to inspect a destroyed hospital and record everything properly so that later this can be used in court. We use modern methods: drones, 3D scanners that make 3D models of destroyed buildings. This allows us to save time and increase our efficiency,” he explained.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office data, during the year of the full-scale war, Russia destroyed or damaged more than 81,000 civilian objects with targeted attacks: more than 62,000 residential buildings, more than 2,300 educational institutions, and more than 450 healthcare facilities.