Every war crime of the Russian Federation must be recorded. Despite the fact that the shelling of peaceful cities in Ukraine is still ongoing, it is already necessary to gather evidence for an operational investigation conducted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
We urge direct witnesses and victims, as well as all people of good will, to add information about Russian war crimes in a special online form at https://russiancrime.org. The collected data will be transferred directly to the international prosecutor.
Civil Network OPORA is an organization that for many years organized peacetime observation in accordance with international standards, is now changing its activities. We are starting a mass recording of war crimes of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. Everyone can join — both direct witnesses and victims, as well as all concerned, ready to record these crimes in accordance with the rules. In this way, all data entered will be securely protected, collected in an appropriate format and promptly and unchanged and transmitted directly to the international prosecutor. Go to https://russiancrime.org and fill out the online form. We are obliged to record every projectile fired at schools, kindergartens, private homes, hospitals and other civilian objects. We are obliged to record every bullet fired at every civilian in Ukraine.
What are war crimes? They are deliberate and gross violations of the rules of war and international humanitarian law. In particular, they are directed against the civilian population. For example, war crimes are damage to civilian infrastructure; premeditated murder, torture, imprisonment of civilians; location and use of troops and equipment in residential city areas; violence against medical staff and medical infrastructure; use of civilian clothes, uniforms, and emblems of the Armed Forces, police and other services of Ukraine, emblems of humanitarian and medical institutions by the occupier; deliberate strikes on buildings of religious, educational, cultural, scientific or charitable purpose, historical monuments, hospitals and places of concentration of the sick and wounded; seizure of property and robbery.
How can these crimes be recorded? These can be photos and videos from the scene, written and oral testimonies of victims, or material evidence (documents, remains of shells, shell casings, fragments of things, buildings).
If you do not have the ability to complete the form, you can send a message to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague Karim Khan via e-mail to [email protected]. You can write in any form in any language, however, unstructured data will take much longer to process.
We want to remind you that on the third day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, on Sunday, February 27, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on his Twitter account: “Ukraine has officially filed a lawsuit against Russia in the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague. We demand that Russia is held accountable for distorting the concept of genocide to justify aggression. We ask the court to immediately order Russia to cease hostilities and schedule a hearing next week”. In addition, on February 28, the prosecutor of another International Criminal Court in The Hague, Karim Khan, said he wanted to begin an investigation into the situation in Ukraine as soon as possible. And on March 2, after appeals from 39 countries, the work on gathering evidence began. It is now important to promptly and carefully record all the crimes of the Russian Federation within the framework of military aggression on the territory of Ukraine.