Human Rights Watch has recorded multiple examples of Russian military troops violating the rules of war against civilians in seized portions of Ukraine’s Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions. Between February 27 and March 14, 2022, there was a case of serial rape; two cases of summary execution, one of six individuals and the other of one man; and additional occurrences of unlawful violence and threats against people. Soldiers were also accused of stealing civilian goods such as food, clothes, and firewood. Those who committed these atrocities are guilty of war crimes.
Many of the Ukrainian residents who were interviewed reported Russian soldiers stealing food, firewood, clothes, and other goods like chainsaws, axes, and fuel.
All parties to the armed conflict in Ukraine are required to follow international humanitarian law, sometimes known as war law, which includes the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, and customary international law. The international law of occupation applies to belligerent military forces that have effective control of a territory. International human rights legislation, which is always relevant, also applies.
Russia has an international legal responsibility to conduct an impartial investigation into suspected war crimes committed by its military. Commanders must know that failure to act against murder and rape may render them personally liable for war crimes as a matter of command responsibility.
