Russia Committed Nearly 80,000 War Crimes So Far, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Tells U.S. Congress

Washington D.C./20.04.23/Turan:  Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told American lawmakers on Wednesday that his office has registered nearly 80,000 incidents of potential war crimes since Vladimir Putin launched its invasion last year, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

To date, Ukraine has convicted 31 Russians for war crimes in its courts.

Speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Kostin said that his office has also identified 310 potential perpetrators of the crimes, and has “finished cases against 152 potential war criminals."

Only in the Kherson region, there are 13,000 cases of war crimes, and more than 1,000 survivors who have reported abuses inside Russian torture chambers, Kostin said. Last month, a team of international lawyers reported that at least 20 Russian torture chambers discovered in Kherson were directly financed by the Kremlin.

According to Kostin, Russian forces use a variety of methods against civilians, including beatings, electric shock torture, waterboarding, rape, sexual humiliation and threats of death. "This was done in order to humiliate and break the resistance of the civilian population," he said. "We have documented more than 60 cases of rape in the [Kherson] region."

Another systematic and widespread crime Ukrainian officials discovered is enforced disappearances: "Currently, more than 600 people whose whereabouts are unknown have been recorded in Kherson alone," he said.

In areas still controlled by Russian forces, residents, including children, are being forcefully relocated to other occupied territories or to Russia, he added. "Such evil cannot go unpunished."

Committee chairman Michael McCaul said shining a spotlight on the brutality shown by Russian troops will show legislators and voters why the US is right in its support of Ukraine.

"This is happening right now... They are monsters and they need to be brought to justice," McCaul said. "These are more than crimes against humanity. What we are witnessing in Ukraine is genocide."

Alex Raufoglu