Russia continued to commit war crimes against Ukraine in 2024 – Amnesty International

That is according to the organization’s official website, Ukrinform reports.

“Civilian casualties, including children and older people, increased, as Russian forces used indiscriminate weapons, damaged critical civilian infrastructure and appeared to deliberately target civilians,” the report states.

It notes that executions, torture and other ill-treatment of civilian detainees and prisoners of war took place in the Russian-occupied territories, where the repression of non-Russian identities continued.

Amnesty International said that civilian casualties were higher than in 2023, and often occurred far from the active front line, as Russia continued to target population centers with missiles and drones. These attacks included one against Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in the capital, Kyiv, which was severely damaged after being struck with a cruise missile on July 8 – an apparent war crime.

“Like numerous other attacks over 2024, the strike on Okhmatdyt was part of a wider coordinated Russian attack; at least 43 civilians in the cities of Kyiv, Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih were killed on the same day,” the human rights advocates said.

They also highlighted Russia’s continued systematic attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to the International Energy Association, 70% of Ukraine’s thermal energy generation capacity had been either destroyed or occupied as of May 2024.

In addition, experts reported increasing evidence of summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces. While Russia typically ignored or rejected these reports, two significant political figures in Russia called for the execution of prisoners of war. In July, Deputy Chair of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev called for “total executions” on his Telegram channel. In October, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov publicly claimed that he had given an order not to take Ukrainian soldiers alive.

“Hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war were tried in Russia and in areas of Ukraine it occupied, often merely for participating in hostilities. The lack of due process in such trials also amounted to a war crime,” Amnesty International said.

Credible reports of torture and other ill-treatment, as well as enforced disappearances of Ukrainian civilians and military personnel, continued. Some 97% of former Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in Russian captivity, including severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, sleep deprivation and mock executions.

The report further noted that Russia did not grant UN monitors access to places of detention where Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war were held. Other international organizations, including humanitarian ones, had limited or no access to places of detention under Russian control, or to the occupied territories generally.

Amnesty International added that violation of the right to education continued across the occupied territories, with children subjected to indoctrination, and the occupation authorities reliant on coercion of teachers that in some cases amounted to forced labor. The report also stated that Russia continued its policy of “Russification” of the occupied territories, including Crimea. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in June that Russia’s administration of Crimea violated numerous human rights, by imposing Russian citizenship on Crimean residents, transferring detainees to Russia, forcibly disappearing residents, and repressing religious and media freedoms.