Report calls for investigation into Putin and others over attack on Mariupol
President Vladimir V. Putin and other senior Russian officials should be investigated for war crimes after the destruction in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol killed thousands of civilians, Human Rights Watch and several other organizations said Thursday at the end of a two-year investigation.
Russia's assault on Mariupol from February 2022 to May 2022 was one of the deadliest episodes of the war, trapping civilians in basement shelters and drawing international condemnation.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based human rights organization, reconstructed the command structure of the Russian armed forces and listed 10 senior officials, including Mr. Putin; Sergei K. Shoigu, the Minister of Defense; and General Valery V. Gerasimov, who most likely directed the war crimes committed in Mariupol during that period. It identified at least 17 Russian or Russia-affiliated units that took part in the attack.
Human Rights Watch worked with Truth Hounds, a Ukrainian human rights organization, to conduct more than 200 interviews, mainly with displaced residents of Mariupol. 3D reconstructions and visual and spatial analyzes were also used SITU research for a detailed overview of the city's destruction. Russia did not allow forensic experts to visit Mariupol.
The Russian government did not publicly discuss the investigation's findings or respond to investigators' questions, Human Rights Watch said.
The two-year study found that Russian air and artillery strikes on two hospitals, residential buildings, and food storage and distribution sites violated international law.
There was no evidence of a Ukrainian military presence in or near bomb sites the report investigated, making the attacks unlawfully indiscriminate, investigators said. In some cases where there was a limited military presence, the attacks were unlawful and disproportionate, the report said. Evidence has also been found of the unlawful blocking of humanitarian aid and evacuations and the forcible transfer of residents to Russia, all of which could amount to war crimes.
The investigation found that 93 percent of high-rise buildings in a five-square-kilometer central zone were damaged or destroyed and at least 8,000 people died from fighting or war-related causes during the months of the attack. That number is lower than Ukrainian government estimates but was calculated from studying enhanced satellite images of the city's cemeteries, where many victims were buried in mass graves.
The true number of victims may never be known, the report's authors said, because many remain missing and the Russian government has already removed much of the evidence as it bulldozed damaged buildings and began a reconstruction campaign.
“The occupying forces have effectively erased physical evidence at hundreds of potential crime scenes across the city,” said Ida Sawyer, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch.
However, testimonies and videos recorded by journalists and accounts by survivors and rescuers revealed catastrophic damage from bombs that smashed through the floors of high-rise apartment buildings and killed families sheltering in underground cellars. The bodies recovered from the wreckage were placed under blankets in the streets to be collected and buried together in long trenches.
The Ukrainian government has reported that dozens of similar bombs have been used daily on other cities and towns under attack by Russian forces.
Human Rights Watch called on countries around the world to ban the use of explosives in populated urban areas around the world.
“They must condemn and seek to end any use of high-consequence explosive weapons in cities, towns and villages – no matter where or by whom,” the report said in its executive summary.
Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting from Kharkiv, Ukraine.