By: Sophia Wang

In Russian-controlled parts of southern Ukraine, Russian forces have been abusing and torturing Ukrainian citizens and there has been a push to hold soldiers accountable for their crimes.

Russia took control of Crimea in 2014, but since February have held more territories near the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

“Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness,” said Yulia Gorbunova, Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Torture, inhumane treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and unlawful confinement of civilians, are among the apparent war crimes we have documented.”

Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization from New York, has interviewed 71 people from the provinces in southern Ukraine. Most people used only their first names or an alias for their safety.

There were many reported incidents; for example, on February 27, in the village of Staryi Bykiv, the Russian authorities gathered 6 men and executed them.

On March 4, Russian officers in Bucha collected 5 Ukrainian men, forced them to kneel on the side of the road, tugged their shirts over their heads, and shot one of them in the back of the head. “He fell [over],” said the witness, “and the women [present at the scene] screamed.”

Soldiers threw a smoke grenade in a basement and shot the woman and the child staying there.

Another woman interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that a soldier had raped her, beat her, and cut her with a knife. She escaped to Kharkiv, where she got treatment for her injuries.

Many other Ukrainian civilians reported that the Russian forces were raiding food, firewood, clothing, chainsaws, gasoline, axes, and other similar resources.

“The cases we documented amount to unspeakable, deliberate cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians,” said Hugh Williamson, director at Human Rights Watch. “Rape, murder, and other violent acts against people in the Russian forces’ custody should be investigated as war crimes.”