Askold Lozynskyj
It seems that every Russian aerial attack on Ukrainian territory that takes place daily constitutes a war crime simply because the target almost invariably is a civilian structure: a hospital, maternity ward, even a school, and mostly a residential structure. In many parts of Ukraine once occupied by the Russians and now free and accessible there are remnants serving as evidence of Russian war crimes such as bodies of Ukrainian civilians shot with their hands tied behind their backs, regular passenger vehicles riddled with 100 bullet holes, entire strictly residential neighborhoods razed. Unfortunately, the evidence is incomplete because international observers such as from the United Nations are denied access to Ukrainian lands currently occupied by the Russians. There is no pressure on the Russians in this regard.
There is a pending case brought by Ukraine against Russia in the International Court of Justice in The Hague for not only war crimes but genocide. That case was initially brought at the very beginning of the full scale invasion in February 2022. It has moved very slowly. Almost four years later in December 2025 Russia was permitted to interpose counterclaims. Wheels of justice are notoriously slow, and the wheels of international justice are almost at a standstill.
The International Criminal Court is a UN tribunal based in The Hague, formed in 2002 on the basis of the Rome Statute of 1998. Some 125 states are members as of April 2025. Conspicuously, albeit not surprisingly, the United States, Russia, China and Israel are absent. Three of these countries are currently involved in wars. The leaders of two are under ICC arrest warrants for war crimes. Frankly why Donald J. Trump and Pete Hegseth are not similarly under ICC arrest warrants is a bit of a mystery, although in all honesty their war crimes although brutal pale in scale by comparison with that of strongman Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Aside from the daily aerial bombing, the Russians have been particularly abusive in two areas. One involves children. In tandem with the Russian mantra ‘to wipe Ukrainians off the face of the earth” which has been repeated often even by representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russians have been kidnapping Ukrainian children at an alarming rate. These children are then taken to Russia to be reeducated so that they become enemies of Ukraine.
The arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Russia’s strongman Vladimir Putin stemmed from charges against Putin for the unlawful deportation of children and the transfer of these children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The other area involves prisoners of war. Torture and even killing of prisoners is a common occurrence. The Olenivka prison massacre occurred on July 29, 2022, almost exactly four years ago when Russian forces allegedly bombed a building housing Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) at the former Volnovakha penal colony (No. 120) in Molodizhne, near Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The attack killed 53-62 Ukrainian POWS and injured 75-130 others.
Torture of POWs is both physical and psychological. It is meant to inflict physical pain, humiliation and intimidation. Physical torture is often inflicted upon a naked prisoner in order to combine the physical with the psychological. He is then beaten with batons, pieces of wood, and whips. Screws or nails are driven beneath finger and toe nails. Worse still is sexual abuse including rape and electrically applied torture to prisoners’ sex organs. Batons or sticks are shoved into the prisoner. Psychological torture is dispensed by making threats about the prisoner’s family, his wife, his kids. Even food is used as a weapon. Prisoners are fed salty fish, but given no water to quench their thirst.
There often doesn’t seem to be any reason for the torture except to satisfy the Russian culture and appetite for torture. POWs are often reluctant to provide testimony about the abuse they endured but sufficient evidence suggests the Russians behave as badly as the Nazis or any other abusers since the first Geneva Convention in the 19th century, when there was an initial effort to have POWs protected.
UN personnel are not given access to Russian prison camps. Last year there was a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in Sochi, Russia. UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres attended. He failed to mention any of this. Frankly, I do not know what Gutteres does. Crimes have to be punished in order to prevent future criminality. Russia behaves as if it is above all laws. This has to change.
July 30, 2026
