A Russian drone killed a man driving his car in Kharkiv Oblast. The strike hit a Peugeot on the Zolochiv-Maksymivka road near the village of Berezivka in Bohodukhiv raion on the evening of 14 July, killing the 61-year-old driver, the Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office said on Telegram. The drone was preliminarily identified as a Molniya.
The precise hit on the moving car suggests that the Molniya was piloted in real-time.
Prosecutors opened a pre-trial investigation into a war crime that caused a death, under Part 2 of Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code. Russian drones hunting civilian cars on Kharkiv Oblast roads is a documented pattern.
In October 2025, a Russian Molniya drone hit a car in the Kupiansk district, wounding a 37-year-old volunteer, and an FPV drone killed two men in another car in the same raion two hours later. Both were classified as war crimes.
Molniya is cheap, common, and now flies itself
The Molniya is among the cheapest weapons in Russia's arsenal. It is a low-cost kamikaze drone built close to the front, reliable and ubiquitous. Russia launches up to ten a day on the Zaporizhzhia axis alone.
Ukraine shot down an AI-equipped Molniya over Zaporizhzhia for the first time on 9 July. The AI variant has no antenna, no operator link, and no emissions for a detector to catch, making electronic warfare useless against it. Ukraine's answer is kinetic interception. Defense Ministry adviser Serhii Beskrestnov has warned that a fiber-optic Molniya is already in testing, which would emit no radio signal at all.
Russia's terror documented
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has documented over 11,000 Russian FPV attacks on civilians since 2024, with 2,010 recorded in the first four months of 2026 alone.
The road between Zolochiv and Maksymivka is a public road in a Ukrainian oblast. A man was driving home on it.
Earlier, a Russian FPV drone killed a 57-year-old hospital worker walking along a road in the same oblast — the last resident of the border village of Tokarivka Druha.
A Russian State Duma deputy declared that destroying up to half of Ukraine's population is acceptable to eradicate what he called "Nazism," the Moscow Times reported. MP Alexei Zhuravlyov made the remarks in a conversation with a blogger.
Russian officials and state media have spent years normalizing calls to erase Ukrainians as a nation — from Dmitry Medvedev's 2022 pledge to make Ukrainians "disappear" to the daily dehumanization that Kremlin television feeds its audience of millions.
As Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine continues, Zhuravlyov's words spell out, in plain terms, the extermination agenda behind Russia's repeated "denazification" claims — the Kremlin accuses Ukrainians of Nazism while its own officials voice openly Nazi-style calls to wipe out a neighboring nation.
"Even fifty percent must be destroyed"
Zhuravlyov spoke in a YouTube interview. When asked how many "Nazis" there are in Ukraine now. Zhuravlyov claimed the figure used to be 2% but may now stand at 20–30%. Asked whether all of them should be destroyed, the deputy answered: "Preferably."
"All Nazis must be destroyed. All of them must be. You understand, if it's fifty—even fifty percent must be destroyed... So that this contagion is not there, so that no one threatens us," Zhuravlyov stated.
Explore further
Russia is returning Ukraine’s war dead with explosives hidden inside. Police now check every body first
The deputy claimed he saw "with his own eyes" how "these creatures come and hang everyone—Russians, non-Russians, regardless of your views." He offered no evidence. He insisted that "if this contagion is not uprooted from there, it will remain forever."
Kill criterion: a weapon in hand
Zhuravlyov allowed that some Ukrainians might switch sides—"change their views.". Those who refuse, he said, "must be destroyed, of course." Asked how to tell a "fascist" from a "non-fascist," the parliamentarian named the main criterion—defending their land with a weapon.
"If he has an assault rifle—yes, he must be destroyed. Why tell him apart? See him—kill him," he stated.
Explore further
Russia works on giving Putin legal pretext to invade any country with Russian citizens in it
Expulsion or death for those who won't recant
To back his claim that Ukrainians would quickly change their position, Zhuravlyov cited a phrase he attributed to a—possibly non-existent—"native Ukrainian":
"Lviv has never yet met a single army in the world without bread and salt."
Explore further
43% of Russian POWs rated Ukrainians as less than fully human — and Kremlin propaganda explains why
He then repeated that those who refuse to change their views should be killed or deported.
"If you don't want to switch sides—you must be either expelled from there or destroyed," he said.
A script written in 2022
Zhuravlyov's formula—re-educate some, expel or kill the rest—repeats the program Russian state media laid out at the start of the full-scale invasion. In April 2022, the Kremlin-controlled agency RIA Novosti published a manifesto declaring that "denazification will inevitably be de-Ukrainization," a text Yale historian Timothy Snyder called a "genocide handbook." In that document, as in the deputy's interview, "Nazi" simply means Ukrainian.
Russia's massive combined missile and drone attack overnight on 6 July killed civilians and wrecked several apartment buildings across Kyiv, Ukrainian officials reported. Air defenses stopped nearly all cruise missiles and most drones but intercepted none of the ballistic and Zircon missiles. The capital declared a day of mourning while rescuers kept digging through damaged high-rises.
Moscow attacks Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles daily, targeting primarily residential buildings and civilian infrastructure and killing civilians across the country in strikes Ukraine and international bodies qualify as war crimes. Last night's assault was the second massive missile attack in days.
Zero ballistic intercepts in a 419-weapon attack
Ukraine's Air Force said its radar units tracked 68 missiles and 351 attack drones during the night. The salvo included 23 Iskander-M and S-400 ballistic missiles, six Zircon/Oniks anti-ship missiles, 33 Kh-101 cruise missiles, and six Kalibr cruise missiles. Kyiv was the main target.
A Kyiv apartment building where a Russian strike destroyed floors from the ninth down to the fifth, 6 July 2026. Photo: Marian Kushnir/RFE/RL
By 08:30, the defenders had downed or suppressed 363 targets. They stopped all six Kalibrs, 31 of 33 Kh-101s, and 326 drones. Not one ballistic or Zircon missile fell to an interceptor. The Air Force recorded 29 ballistic missile impacts and 18 drone hits at 34 locations, plus falling debris at 16 more.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry appealed to nearly 40 partner countries just four days earlier to urgently release Patriot interceptors. Those missiles remain the only reliable answer to Russian ballistic weapons.
Explore further
Kyiv death toll climbs to 30 as rescuers dig for three still buried under a nine-story block
11 dead in Kyiv, three children among the hospitalized
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko reportedthat the Russian attack killed at least 11 people in the city. One wounded man died in the hospital in the morning. The strike injured 46 people, and medics hospitalized 27 of them, including three children. Prosecutors opened another war-crime investigation over the deaths.
Rescuers evacuate a wounded woman from a residential building hit in Russia's attack on Kyiv, 6 July 2026. Photo: Marian Kushnir/RFE/RL
Four city districts took damage, with Podilskyi hit hardest. One nine-story building there lost its apartments from the fifth floor to the ninth. The State Emergency Service said rescuers walked 17 people out of that building and brought 28 more down by fire ladder. City authorities earlier reported two dead and 22 rescued at a 25-story Darnytskyi building that debris struck at the fourth-floor level.
Explore further
Russian strikes kill 19 civilians across Ukraine, including toddler in Sumy Oblast
Klitschko added that Russian weapons hit residential high-rises in Darnytskyi district too. A fire broke out in a 25-story building, where the attack destroyed apartments between the second and fifth floors. Falling debris set apartments burning on the 23rd through 25th floors of a 30-story complex, and a garage cooperative nearby caught fire, rescuers reported. A warehouse burned in Obolonskyi district, and crews also worked in Holosiivskyi.
Day of mourning and rerouted trains
Klitschko announced that 7 July would be a Day of Mourning in Kyiv. Flags on all municipal buildings drop to half-mast, and the city banned entertainment events. The search operation in Podilskyi and Darnytskyi districts continued, with people possibly still under the rubble.
National railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said the State Emergency Service restricted train movement on some Kyiv Oblast sections for safety reasons. Five long-distance trains switched to backup detour routes with all key stops preserved but delays expected. Suburban traffic in the Fastiv direction also suffered, so shuttle buses now link Boiarka with Kyiv.
Residents wait for news of friends whose building took a hit; their calls ring unanswered. Kyiv, 6 July 2026. Photo: Marian Kushnir/RFE/RL
One killed in Kyiv Oblast, a baby girl among the wounded
Head of the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration Mykola Kalashnyk reported that the attack killed one person in Bucha district. By 7:30, 15 residents of the oblast had been hurt, with 11 in hospitals, among them a nine-month-old girl. The strikes damaged detached houses, businesses, and other civilian sites across Bucha, Vyshhorod, and Brovary districts.
The most dangerous situation developed in Vyshneve, where unexploded ordnance threatened secondary detonation. Police cordoned off the strike site, and the city council urged residents and businesses to stay in shelters and off the streets until the all-clear.
A car burns inside a garage facility hit during Russia's drone attack on Odesa overnight on 6 July 2026. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Drones wound a man in Odesa
Russia attacked Odesa city in southern Ukraine with strike drones the same night. Head of the Odesa Oblast Military Administration Oleh Kiper saidthe attack injured a 23-year-old man, who received medical care. The drones damaged multi-story residential buildings, a parking facility with garages, and a detached house that caught fire.
Head of the City Military Administration Serhii Lysak noted that five detached houses and a dormitory took damage in Kyivskyi district. Crews restored the tram tracks, and public transport kept running.
Explore further
Russian attack on Kyiv kills 20, injures about 100 – UPDATED
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly warned on 5 July that Russia was preparing a new massive strike. Russia's previous mass attack on the capital killed 31 people and injured over a hundred.
Bodies returned from Russia to Ukraine sometimes contain explosives. Ukrainian police have repeatedly found explosive devices and grenades during initial inspection of remains returned by Russia, said Taras Tarasenko, head of crimes against life and health investigations at Kirovohrad Oblast Main Police Department, in an interview with Ukrinform.
The finding extends a documented pattern of Russian misconduct in body returns since Ukraine and Russia began large-scale repatriation under the June 2025 Istanbul talks. The most recent transfer brought 522 bodies on 18 June 2026, with full forensic identification of each repatriated body taking around 14 months due to the condition in which remains arrive.
Former Ukraine's Military Intelligence chief and current Head of Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov previously characterized Russia's handling of fallen Ukrainian soldiers as "dirty games."
Initial inspection routinely checks for explosive devices
After repatriated bodies arrive in Ukraine, police conduct an initial inspection with the first priority being to check whether the remains carry items that could be dangerous, Tarasenko told the journalists.
"Such cases have been repeated. We found explosive devices, grenades, and other things, so we work as carefully as possible," Tarasenko said.
In parallel, investigators search for personal items that can help identify the fallen soldier, such as documents, mobile phones, dog tags, and bank cards. Detailed examination follows, with investigators recording and photographing distinguishing marks, tattoos, clothing, and other details.
Mixed remains require segmentation, DNA expertise
Police also report that repatriated remains are sometimes found mixed with the bones and tissue of multiple individuals returned as one body. Visual inspection and DNA expertise identify these cases.
Then, law enforcement and forensic medical experts conduct segmentation to separate the remains for further investigation.
Previously, Russia has been caught hiding its own war dead in handovers by sending back remains in Ukrainian uniforms with Ukrainian dog tags, possibly to dodge compensation owed to Russian soldiers' families. Ukrainian families have also reported bodies returning with missing internal organs.
The Ukrainian police in the Kherson Oblast have notified a Crimean resident of suspicion in connection with the illegal removal of rare animals from the Askania-Nova biosphere reserve. The damage from the crimes exceeds $1.5 million.
Officials emphasize that the transfers were not connected to any military necessity and constitute violations of international humanitarian law, as Askania-Nova is part of a UNESCO-recognized biosphere reserve network with protected scientific status. The reserve included 3,000 species of rare animals – zebras, wildebeest, bison, buffalo, deer, and wild horses that lived in partial freedom, mostly without cages and fences.
Investigators say the suspect coordinated the transfer of protected wildlife during Russia’s occupation of parts of southern Ukraine and worked in cooperation with occupation-installed reserve management structures.
Occupation enables trafficking
Following Russia’s seizure of parts of Kherson Oblast, the Askania-Nova biosphere reserve came under occupation control and was placed under an unlawfully appointed administration. Investigators say a 58-year-old founder of a Yalta-based zoo and lion park entered into agreements with this administration to facilitate the removal and transfer of animals.
Before Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve, established by German Friedrich Falz-Fein in 1898, was one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ukraine. It attracted visitors from all over the world with its stunning landscapes and unique wildlife.
Investigators document transfers
Law enforcement agencies report at least three coordinated transport operations in 2024 that moved animals from the reserve to occupied Crimea. These operations included:
Three grey Ukrainian cattle valued at approximately $93,600
Three Chapman’s zebras valued at approximately $423,000
Seven additional Chapman’s zebras valued at approximately $980,000
In total, authorities say ten Chapman’s zebras and three cattle were removed, resulting in overall damages of approximately $1.5 million.
Investigators describe the case as a structured scheme involving repeated logistical coordination between the suspect and the occupation authorities.
Authorities file charges
The suspect has been charged in absentia under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, covering violations of the laws and customs of war committed in conspiracy.
The Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office is overseeing the proceedings, while investigative actions continue to establish the full scope of involvement and additional participants.
Officials stress that Askania-Nova, one of Ukraine’s most significant conservation sites, remains protected under international humanitarian law despite occupation conditions.
A Russian strike killed two Norwegian People's Aid deminers and wounded four others in Kherson Oblast on 24 June, the group said. The team was clearing mines from Ukrainian farmland when the strike hit. Ukrainian prosecutors opened a war-crimes investigation.
Kherson Oblast, partly freed from Russian occupation in 2022, stays heavily mined and under daily Russian fire from across the Dnipro River. The same drones and shelling that hit the deminers struck across the oblast that day and into the next, killing and wounding civilians far from any front line. Such attacks repeat every day in the region and are known as the so-called "human safari."
Russia has turned Ukraine into the world's most mined country, contaminating tens of thousands of square kilometers of farmland that only a few thousand clearance workers can slowly make safe—work measured in decades, not years.
A strike at midday on a demining team
The strike hit at about 12:50 p.m. near the village of Novopetrivka, in the Vysokopillia community, Norwegian People's Aid said. One worker was killed at the scene, and a colleague taken to hospital later died of wounds. Four others were wounded, two in serious condition as doctors fought to save their lives.
The dead and wounded were all Ukrainian nationals, the group said. A 24-year-old demining specialist was among those killed, the head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, reported. The team had been clearing land of mines and unexploded ordnance, a basic condition for farmers to return to their fields and for displaced people to come home.
"Military authorities in Kherson report through Ukrainian media that Norwegian People's Aid was struck by a Russian Iskander‑M missile. The organization is still working to verify this information and the exact circumstances surrounding the attack," the organization wrote in its press release.
Despite the fact that it's always Russia deliberately targeting first responders and humanitarian organizations, the group called on "all parties" to respect international humanitarian law and stressed that humanitarian workers are not a target. It suspended all its demining operations in Ukraine after the strike.
Explore further
24-year-old foreign deminer came to clear Russia’s mines in Kherson. Russian shelling killed him and wounded four colleagues
A war-crimes case
Viktoriya Fedotova, head of the Ukrainian NGO Martin-Club and a partner of the demining team, wrote that the workers had taken no part in combat. They were clearing Ukrainian soil so civilians could be safe, she said, and her own team had trained alongside the dead only recently. Attacking those who save lives and make land safe is a gross violation of international humanitarian law, she added.
The Kherson regional prosecutor's office opened a war-crimes case under Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code. Investigators said Russian forces struck near Novopetrivka at around 1 p.m., hitting members of the non-governmental organization as they cleared the ground.
Explore further
Russia kills four firefighters in Kharkiv hitting the same spot twice in one night
A usual day of Russian strikes across the oblast
Across Kherson Oblast over the preceding 24 hours, Russian drones and artillery hit Kherson city and dozens of settlements, the regional administration reported. The strikes killed two people while wounding 16.
By late afternoon on 24 June, prosecutors had logged one civilian killed and 11 wounded across the oblast from artillery, mortars, drones, and a ballistic strike. A drone hit a civilian fuel station around 5 p.m., seriously wounding two people.
Explore further
Russia kills firefighter in Kharkiv double-tap attack and strikes Kyiv’s Brodsky Synagogue—both hit in 130-drone overnight assault
The strikes continued the next morning.
On 25 June, prosecutors opened a fresh war-crimes case over drone attacks on a city hospital and a utility worker.
Around 8 a.m., a drone strike on the Kherson hospital wounded five of its medical and technical staff.
At 9:10 a.m., a drone wounded a 63-year-old utility worker in the Korabelnyi district, and just before 11 a.m. another strike hurt a 61-year-old man in the same district.
A 62-year-old woman was hospitalized with blast and head injuries from a Shahed strike in the Central district the day before, and a 16-year-old boy needed care for a blast injury from another drone strike there.
A 60-year-old woman and a man sought help after a drone hit their car between Bilozerka and Pryozerne.
Explore further
Russian missiles hit kindergarten and kill rescuer in overnight strikes across Ukraine
A pattern of strikes on those who help
UN investigators have previously ruled Russia's deliberate drone hunting of Kherson's civilians and rescuers a crime against humanity, tracing the campaign up the chain of command. Russian forces have hit humanitarian deminers before: in September 2025, a Russian missile killed two workers and wounded five from a Danish Refugee Council clearance team near Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine.
A Russian drone strike in Sumy Oblast on 22 June killed a 13-year-old boy, his 36-year-old father, and his 73-year-old grandmother, the Regional Prosecutor's Office reports. The boy's 31-year-old mother, his 10-year-old brother, and his 13-year-old sister survived the strike with injuries.
The Sumy Oblast Prosecutor's Office opened a pre-trial investigation into a war crime.
The strike killed three members of one family across three generations in a single drone attack on their home.
Znob-Novhorodske lies in northern Sumy Oblast near the Russian border. The community has been repeatedly struck by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale war in 2022.
Ukrainian prosecutors open war crimes investigation under Article 438
"Prosecutors, in coordination with other law enforcement officials, are documenting the consequences of the attack," the Sumy Oblast Prosecutor's Office said.
Ukraine opened a pre-trial investigation into the commission of war crimes that resulted in the death of people, which is Part 2, Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code implements provisions of the Geneva Conventions in Ukrainian domestic law. Direct attacks on civilian objects, including residential homes occupied by civilians, are prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I.
Sumy Oblast border communities endure sustained Russian attacks
Russian forces have repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure across Sumy Oblast. A Russian glide bomb killed a 69-year-old woman in a Shostka apartment block on 3 April 2026. A Russian drone killed a grain-truck driver in Sumy Oblast on 16 March 2026, with police opening war-crimes proceedings under Article 438 for each strike.
Previously, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that at least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 were injured last month, which is a 93 percent increase compared with May 2025 and a 23 percent increase over April 2026.
The investigators say the use of fire weapons by Russia in urban areas of Ukraine was the main driver of the high casualty toll.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has reviewed the work of his office across his first year in the role. He published infographics on Telegram, counting the crimes of Russia's invasion alongside the office's work on corruption, child protection, and asset recovery at home.
Every day of the war adds new files to Ukraine's registries, as Russian forces keep targeting civilians. The wider the gap between crimes recorded and trials finished, the more accountability leans on overstretched courts at home and on international tribunals for Russia's commanders.
A year measured against the war
Since June 2025, Ukrainian prosecutors registered and began investigating 72,295 crimes linked to Russia's aggression. Of those, 68,900 are war crimes. Investigators served suspicion notices on 349 people and sent 258 cases to court. Courts have handed down 97 guilty verdicts so far.
As of early March 2026, Ukrainian authorities had recorded about 213,200 episodes of war crimes committed by Russian troops. Courts have handed down verdicts against 242 Russians, 22 of them convicted in person, Suspilne reported. Additionally, Ukraine accuses Russia of deporting tens of thousands of children from occupied territory, a case now before international investigators.
Explore further
Russia kills four firefighters in Kharkiv hitting the same spot twice in one night
Chasing wartime corruption
Kravchenko's office also pursued fraud far from the front. In the state budget sphere, prosecutors established 14 billion hryvnias ($312 million) in damages and sent over 2,000 indictments to court. In defense, they filed 408 lawsuits worth 42.6 billion hryvnias ($949 million) and recovered 3.6 billion hryvnias ($80 million) for the state.
Completed cases covered budget embezzlement, illegal payments, fraudulent military medical exemptions, draft evasion, and theft of volunteer aid for the army. Those proceedings established 3.481 billion hryvnias ($78 million) in damages, with 2.8 billion hryvnias ($62 million) already returned. Environmental lawsuits added another 7.5 billion hryvnias ($167 million).
Explore further
SBU names 10 Russians tied to “human safari” drone hunt on civilians in Kherson
Returning assets, arming the troops
A review of cases against businesses reshaped part of the year's work. Prosecutors identified 26,818 such files and closed 9,716 of them. Pretrial investigations continue in 15,303 proceedings, which prompted 4,263 expert examinations, while 1,867 cases reached court. The office returned over 80 million hryvnias ($1.8 million) in cash, in several currencies, to businesses, along with precious metals, cars, and equipment.
It also transferred funds and property worth more than 1.3 billion hryvnias ($29 million) to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Kravchenko took office a year ago, when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the appointment decree. His office recently submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court on Russia's war crimes against more than 1,800 Ukrainian prisoners.
For months, Russian forces have cordoned off the occupied town of Oleshky. They have blocked roads and emptied pharmacies, all while mining the area. In June, a food truck ran over a landmine at the edge of town, killing a man bringing in aid. Up to 6,000 Ukrainians are still trapped in Oleshky and neighboring villages, more than 180 of them children. The last grocery store shut in January, and for stretches this spring no food reached the town at all.
Ukraine has seen this before. In its siege of Oleshky, Russia is reviving methods Stalin’s regime used against Ukrainian villages in 1932 and 1933: branding villages "hostile," cutting them off from supplies, barring the starving from leaving, and letting hunger kill the population. That famine—the Holodomor—killed millions.
People in Oleshky wait for food supplies. Photo: BBC
Yet as it besieges Oleshky, Russia says the Holodomor never happened. Moscow hasdismissed the Holodomor as Western propaganda,rewritten its schoolbooks to blame the famine on the weather, and in occupied Ukraine hastorn down the memorials to its dead.
Russia rewrites history in another way too: banning scholars. On 5 January 2026, it barred 28 Canadians from the country. Among them were 16 scholars of the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC) of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta. At the time, they were working on a course about the famine Russia denies.
They released it anyway. Seventy-seven days after the ban,Famine as Genocide: The Holodomor in Ukraine went live on Coursera—13 free modules, built by HREC at the University of Alberta.
What was the Holodomor?
The Holodomor—"murder by starvation"—was a man-made famine that struck Soviet Ukraine between 1932 and 1933. Scholarsgenerally put the death toll at around 3.5 million; some figures go up to 7 million. Most died in the winter of 1932 and the spring and summer of 1933, as Soviet collectivization emptied whole villages.
The 1932 harvest was poor, but Soviet policy turned shortage into catastrophe. Stalin's government set grain quotas the farmers could not meet. Brigades entered the villages and seized what was left, killing those who resisted. Authorities blacklisted villages that fell short, sealing them off from the outside world. When peasants tried to flee to less famine-stricken parts of the USSR, a draconian passport system trapped them inside Ukraine.
One Ukrainian photographer left the famine its starkest visual record. In the spring of 1933, Mykola Bokan shot a near-daily record of the Holodomor from inside his own home in the Chernihiv Oblast. One photograph shows his family at the dining-room table, beneath his caption: "300 days without a single piece of bread to have with our meager lunch!"
Mykola Bokan's family at lunch in Baturyn, Chernihiv Oblast, 2 April 1933. Bokan inscribed the print himself: "300 days (three hundred!) without a piece of bread to add to the meager lunch." From left: daughter Anna, wife Vassa, and sons Oleksandr, Kostiantyn, and Lev, with Mykola Bokan on the right. Source: Mykola Bokan / TsDKFFA Ukraine, via the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide.
Three months later, his son Kostiantyn, one of the gaunt figures in the image, was dead. On 10 July 1933, Bokan gathered his surviving children around a smaller table, a framed portrait of Kostiantyn between them. The caption reads: "Remembrance for Kostia, who died of starvation."
Bokan was arrested for "counter-revolutionary activities." The photographs were among the evidence. He died in the Soviet camp system. His pictures sat in a secret police archive until researchersfound them in 2007. They are now part of Famine as Genocide’s evidence.
Mykola Bokan with three of his surviving sons at a family remembrance for his son Kostiantyn, who had died of starvation that spring. The framed portrait at the center of the table is of Kostiantyn. Bokan inscribed the photograph "Remembrance for Kostia, who died of starvation. 10 July 1933." Baturyn, Chernihiv oblast. Photo: Mykola Bokan / TsDKFFA Ukraine, via the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide.
Ukraine commemorates the Holodomor each year on the fourth Saturday of November, with a national minute of silence at four o’clock in the afternoon.
The permanent damage the deniers have to explain away
Russia’s denial now has to contend with a growing body of evidence—including the famine's mark on the bodies of people born long after it ended.
For decades, the Holodomor was usually told as a story of starvation. The Soviet archives remained locked until the early 1990s, preventing people from obtaining an accurate picture of the Soviet famine. Before that, scholars studying the Holodomor worked from the memories of émigré survivors and the cables foreign diplomats sent to their home countries in 1932-33.
That picture has changed. “Thanks to the amount of research done over the past twelve years, there is now a field called Holodomor studies,” Marta Baziuk, The Holodomor Research and Education Consortium’s (HREC) executive director and one of the course’s builders, told Euromaidan Press.
HREC’s course broadens that view by tracing the famine’s epigenetic legacy — its lingering physical and psychological effects — among survivors and their descendants.
Bodies of starved peasants on a street in Kharkiv, 1933; the Austrian engineer Alexander Wienerberger took this photo. Source: Wikimedia
Research into other man-made famines, especially the Dutch Hunger Winter during World War II, informs this part. In the winter of 1944, German forces blockaded the western Netherlands and cut food supplies to civilians. A 2026 study groups Holodomor descendantswith Dutch Hunger Winter and Holocaust survivors, pointing to shared histories of famine, mass deprivation, and inherited trauma.
Children conceived during the famine showed lasting epigenetic changes. Over sixty years later, the generation affected by famines showedaccelerated biological aging and elevated risk of diabetes and heart disease compared to other generations.
Researchers studying three generations of Holodomor survivor families have found stress, mistrust, and food hoarding in grandchildren who never went hungry themselves. They describe it as “living in survival mode.”
"Russia’s war has made Ukrainian history important to a lot of people. This course might’ve been good before the war, but it would have sat quietly, with less interest."— Baziuk
The targeting of Ukrainians shows up in Soviet death records, Baziuk told Euromaidan Press. Even outside the Ukrainian Soviet republic, and even in mixed villages, ethnic Ukrainians died at noticeably higher rates than their neighbors.
The Executed Renaissance
HREC’s course does not treat the Holodomor in isolation. It situates the famine within a broader Soviet pattern of repression against non-Russian groups, in which physical destruction and material deprivation went hand in hand with the stifling of all culture hostile to Stalinism.
Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide,"called the Holodomor the classic example of “Soviet genocide” in 1953. To him, the famine was one prong of a wider assault on Ukraine’s cultural figures, clergy, the peasantry, and Ukrainian national identity through resettlement with non-Ukrainians.
Over the course of the 1930s, Soviet security services arrested, deported, or executed roughly 30,000 Ukrainian writers, scholars, and clergy.
Ukrainian cultural figures flourished in the 1920s, as the Ukrainian language was more widely promoted, only for Soviet authorities to murder them in the 1930s. Today, Ukrainians remember that generation as the “Executed Renaissance.”
Many of those killed were themselves committed Communists. In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks had little organic support in Ukraine. They had recruited young, idealistic Ukrainians by promising room for a Ukrainian version of socialism.
Korenizatsia, the Soviet promotion of non-Russian nationalities, had once promised room for Ukrainian culture. Stalin’s Great Turn — the Soviet regime’s late-1920s drive toward forced collectivization and rapid industrialization — crushed that opening. Ukrainian national communists became, at best, relics of a discarded future, and at worst marked for death.
Sandarmokh, a forest site in Karelia where the NKVD, the USSR’s secret police, executed thousands of victims, including many Ukrainian intellectuals of the “Executed Renaissance.” Source: Razom for Ukraine.
Russia’s present war follows a similar logic. Ukrainian writers are again being killed, as they were in the 1930s. In 2022, Russian forces seized the children’s author Volodymyr Vakulenko near Izium. He is among the more than 100 cultural figures killed by Russia, according to PEN Ukraine.
In Russian-occupied territory, churches not part of the Moscow Patriarchate have been closed, seized, or destroyed. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have also been forcibly transferredto Russia, where they are to be brought up as Russians. Moscow’s abduction of children has formed the basis for the ICC arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.
Forget what you’ve seen: Soviet-era denial of the Holodomor
Soviet denial began while Ukrainians were still dying. When the International Red Cross offered famine aid, Moscow refused, denying that mass starvation was taking place. Even as Ukraine’s villages became open-air morgues, Soviet ships carried Ukrainian grain out of Odesa for sale on foreign markets.
In March 1933, a young Welsh journalist named Gareth Jones went from village to village in Soviet Ukraine, recounting what he saw:
"There is hunger almost everywhere. Millions die from it. I travelled for several days in Ukraine, and there was no bread. The children had stomachaches, all the horses and cows were dying, and the people were also dying of hunger. The terror was on an unheard-of scale." — Gareth Jones in a letter to his parents, March 1933
For his trouble, Jones was mocked by name in The New York Times. NYT’s Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, responded to Jones in print, denying that any famine existed.
A picture of Gareth Jones, the first reporter to break news of the Holodomor to the wider world. Source: Wikimedia
Duranty received more acclaim than Gareth Jones in his lifetime, receiving a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The Times has since disavowed his coverage, calling his Soviet dispatches "some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper." Nevertheless, NYT has yet to return the award.
Jones was banned from the USSR and shot dead two years later in Inner Mongolia, in northern China. He did not live to see his findings vindicated.
Russia’s denial today
Following in Soviet footsteps, Russia continues to whitewash or deny the Holodomor. In 2014, Kremlin-backed outlets called it a “hoax invented by the West’s propaganda machine.” Since 2023, Russian school textbooks have blamed the famine on poor harvests and local mismanagement rather than the Stalinist policies.
Asked about intent, Baziuk did not treat it as a difficult question. The archives, she says, show Soviet officials knew people were starving and kept selling Ukrainian grain abroad as they died.
Beyond intimidating scholars, Russia's denial extends to physical destruction. On 19 October 2022, occupation forces in Mariupoldismantled the monument to victims of the Holodomor and political repression near the destroyed Drama Theatre, where up to 600 Ukrainian civilians were killed by a Russian airstrike. The granite, officials said, would be turned into construction materials.
Occupation authorities dismantle a Holodomor memorial in Nova Kakhovka. Source: Holodomor Museum
In November 2023, Russian-installed administrators in occupied Kherson Oblast began demolishing Holodomor memorialsin Nova Kakhovka and the Oleshky community. They called the memorials "a tool for manipulating history," artificially created to incite hatred toward the Russian Federation.
Echoes of the Past: Russia’s Starvation of Oleshky in 2026
Location of Oleshky, Kherson region
Russia’s destruction has not stopped at memorials.
In a25 June report, UN monitors who interviewed residents recorded at least 29 civilians killed this year in Oleshky and neighboring villages, most by FPV drones. No food had reached Oleshky since 26 May. A few of Oleshky’s trapped residents escaped through ad-hoc volunteer runs, including 32 people during a three-day lull in the shelling. Others could not be moved at all.
One woman’s husband stayed behind with his 84-year-old father, who could not walk the ten kilometers to the meeting point.
Russian forces imposing these conditions, the monitors noted, are legally bound to feed the town they occupy.
The Soviet state followed the same logic, cutting off villages that missed grain quotas and barring peasants from leaving Soviet Ukraine in search of food.
A car bombed by a Russian FPV drone while attempting to deliver food to occupied Oleshky. Photo: Kherson Nonfake
Ninety years on, Russia is doing it again in Oleshky. Parliament Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets calls Russia's siegedeliberate terrorism.
Oleshky’s exiled administration describes what that means in practice: the dead buried in plastic bags, sometimes marked only with a name and two dates. One man who died in December lay unburied for nearly two months.
Concerning Oleshky, Oleksandr Prokudin, head of Kherson Regional Military Administration, told Censor.NET that Russian forces have “created a situation there akin to the Holodomor." The historical parallels are not lost on Ukrainians.
This material was produced as part of a project by the Institute of Mass Information with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The content of this publication does not reflect the official position of the IMI or the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
According to MIVD report, it was previously known that Russia usesd tear gas, but now intelligence has confirmed the use of chloropicrin — a substance that can kill in high concentrations in enclosed spaces.
Use of of chloropicrin, banned under international law, was discovered by the Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) and General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) together with the German foreign intelligence service BND.
The Kyiv Independent previously reported rising chemical attacks, but Ukraine could not accurately identify the chemical substances due to lack of equipment.
The U.S. State Department had already reported in May that Russian forces have used the chemical agent chloropicrin in Ukraine. The May 1 announcement was part of a larger statement about the introduction of new U.S. sanctions against more than 280 individuals and entities.
For now, the original statement has been removed from the U.S. State Department website.
Russia is using this type of weapon more frequently and "with ease," says MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans, who announced the news to the Dutch parliament, called the situation "absolutely unacceptable," calling for "more sanctions, isolation of Russia and unwavering military support for Ukraine."
"We are making this public now because Russia's use of chemical weapons must not become normalized," Brekelmans said. "If the threshold for using this type of weapon is lowered, it is dangerous not only for Ukraine but also for the rest of Europe and the world."
Since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has conducted over 9,000 chemical attacks. At least three Ukrainian soldiers have died directly from exposure to toxic substances, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Defense.
Dutch intelligence has established that Russian military leadership actively facilitates chemical attacks, and the use of banned substances has become standard practice for Russian forces.
Moscow is also increasing investments in chemical weapons programs, expanding research and recruiting new scientists, MIVD and AIVD observe.
The U.S. has accused Russia of deploying chloropicrin, often used in agriculture and widely weaponized as a “vomiting agent” during World War I.
Ukrainian prosecutors have documented cases of Russian forces summarily executing 273 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), the Liga.net news outlet reported, citing a statement from the Prosecutor General's Office.
Kyiv and the U.N. have raised alarm over the rising number of such cases, saying they point to a systematic policy by Russia to murder Ukrainian captives. Half of the document cases were recorded this year alone.
Seventy-seven criminal cases have been launched in connection with the killings of POWs, while only two people were convicted, and a trial against a third person is ongoing. The statement did not clarify whether the convictions were issued in absentia.
A total of 188 people have been convicted of various war crimes, including 18 captured Russian soldiers and one civilian, who were convicted in person. The rest were convicted in absentia.
Earlier this week, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported a case of the likely murder of a Ukrainian POW who was apparently tied to a motorcycle by Russian soldiers and dragged along the road.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said in May that it alone had documented more than 150 cases of Ukrainian soldiers being executed after surrendering to Russian forces. Multiple intelligence reports suggest that Russian soldiers have received explicit orders to kill prisoners of war.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine confirmed in March growing numbers of incidents in which Russian forces killed or maimed surrendering Ukrainian troops.
A separate Ukrainian investigation is also underway into the killing of around 50 Ukrainian POWs in the Russian-run Olenivka prison in 2022. Kyiv blamed the killings on Russia, saying Moscow's forces deliberately put Azov fighters in a separate building that was later destroyed.
Russia denied responsibility, claiming the explosion was caused by a Ukrainian HIMARS strike—a version U.N. investigators have rejected.
Although Moscow blocked an independent investigation by denying U.N. monitors access, Lubinets recently said that an internal U.N. analysis concluded Russia was to blame.
Russian forces likely executed another Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW), Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on July 1, referring to a recent video that appears to show the captive tied to a motorcycle and dragged along a road.
The alleged execution adds to growing evidence that Russian forces are systematically violating the Geneva Conventions by killing Ukrainian captives.
"A video is circulating on social media showing a man being tied to a motorcycle and dragged along the road," Lubinets said in a statement.
"It is a clear act of demonstrative cruelty and yet another war crime by the Russian Federation."
Lubinets said he has sent official letters regarding the suspected war crime to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"Russia is acting as a terrorist state. And it must be held fairly accountable for every crime," he added.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) alone reported in May that it had documented more than 150 cases of Ukrainian soldiers being executed after surrendering to Russian forces. Officials noted that these were only the confirmed incidents, and the real number is likely higher.
HUR and other agencies say such executions are not isolated but part of a broader, deliberate policy directed by Russia's military leadership. Multiple intelligence reports suggest that Russian soldiers have received explicit orders to kill prisoners of war.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine confirmed in March growing numbers of incidents in which Russian forces killed or maimed surrendering Ukrainian troops.
The commission cited testimony from Russian deserters who said they were instructed not to take prisoners but to shoot them on sight.
Earlier this year, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported a sharp increase in POW executions, documenting 79 killings across 24 incidents since August 2024. In many cases, the victims were unarmed or wounded, and some were killed in groups.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 1 that he had signed the ratification documents establishing the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, marking a major step toward prosecuting Russia's leadership.
Ukraine and the Council of Europe signed the agreement establishing the Special Tribunal on June 25 during a ceremony in Strasbourg. Zelensky and Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset signed it after more than three years of advocacy and diplomacy.
"The agreement must now be swiftly ratified so that the process of creating the tribunal can begin," Zelensky said in a statement. He also instructed Ukraine's government to urgently submit necessary legislative changes to parliament to ensure Kyiv's full implementation of the agreement.
"I ask members of parliament to treat this as an immediate priority," Zelensky added, urging lawmakers to pass the needed legislation without delay.
The tribunal, once established, would specifically target Russia's top political and military leadership for the crime of aggression, defined as the illegal use of force by one state against another, which existing international bodies, like the International Criminal Court (ICC), are not able to prosecute due to jurisdictional limitations.
Zelensky also called on the Foreign Ministry and the Presidential Office to finalize a roadmap with international partners for the tribunal's launch.
"Already this year, Russia must begin to feel that accountability for the crime of aggression is inevitable," he said. "Aggression is a crime, and Russia's truly inevitable punishment for this crime is in the global interest of everyone in the world who wants their people to live in peace."
Speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on June 25, Zelensky thanked the body for championing the idea from its inception and pushing forward international accountability for Russia's invasion.
"It was here in this assembly, that the first call for such a tribunal was made," Zelensky said. "The idea was born here – and now it’s gaining real support from partner countries in Europe and beyond."
The tribunal is designed to close a legal gap that currently prevents the ICC from prosecuting Russia for the crime of aggression, although the court has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Alongside the tribunal, the Council of Europe has also helped establish the Register of Damage, which has received over 34,000 claims from Ukrainians documenting losses and harms caused by the war.
Zelensky has repeatedly stressed the need for full justice and has called for the prosecution of all Russian officials responsible for planning and executing the war.
An internal U.N. analysis has found Russia responsible for a 2022 explosion at Olenivka prison, which killed over 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on June 30.
"(A)n internal analysis of the U.N. showed that it was the Russian Federation that planned and carried out the attack," he said in a post to social media.
The investigation, published on June 26, reads that an "internal U.N. analysis concluded that it was the Russian Federation who planned and executed the attack," though the U.N. did not publicly acknowledge Russia's responsibility.
Russia has denied being responsible for the attack but prevented efforts by the international community to independently investigate the attack and contaminated evidence at the site, according to a report published by the U.N.
Kyiv has said that days before the July 2022 attack, Russia deliberately put Ukrainian members of the Azov Regiment, who were awaiting a prisoner exchange, in a separate part of the Olenivka prison building that was later destroyed in the explosion.
"The report identifies the weapons and ammunition that the Russian Armed Forces used to kill Ukrainian prisoners of war, and also examines in detail the planning, organization, and execution of the murder," Lubinets said.
The ombudsman noted that the U.N. fact-finding mission on Olenivka was disbanded due to a lack of security guarantees, adding that the mission has previously refused to review evidence provided by Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly violated international conventions protecting the rights of POWs as it continues to carry out its war against Ukraine.
A Russian military court has convicted 184 Ukrainian POWs captured in Kursk Oblast of acts of terrorism, Mediazona reported on June 25.
The POWs captured in Kursk were charged with carrying out a grave terrorist act by a group of individuals, as outlined by the Russian Criminal Code.
Junior Lieutenant Yevhen Hoch was convicted of allegedly carrying out an act of terrorism by taking part in Ukraine's Kursk Oblast incursion.
The White House has recommended terminating U.S. funding for multiple programs that investigate war crimes worldwide, including Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Reuters reported on June 26.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, the administration has imposed sweeping layoffs and budget cuts, targeting foreign aid, media outlets, and federal workers. Many of the cuts have directly impacted programs assisting Ukraine.
The Trump administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on June 25 recommended canceling funds for nearly two dozen programs that investigate and seek accountability for war crimes, two U.S. sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The outlet also reviewed internal government documents to support their claims.
The targeted programs include groups investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine, as well as atrocities in Myanmar, Syria, Iraq, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Gambia.
Multiple programs designated for termination are operating in Ukraine, three sources told Reuters. One of the groups is Global Rights Compliance, which gathers evidence of Russian war crimes across the country, including torture and sexual violence. Another is Legal Action Worldwide, a legal aid organization that supports efforts to prosecute suspects accused of perpetrating war crimes in Ukraine.
The State Department will have the opportunity to appeal the OMB's recommendation, though two U.S. officials told Reuters that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is not likely to advocate for most of the programs.
Rubio could potentially argue to preserve a few key programs, such as those supporting the prosecution of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, one source said.
According to an internal State Department email viewed by Reuters, the department has until July 11 to submit their arguments on behalf of preserving any of the targeted war crimes accountability programs.
The Trump administration's funding cuts have already impacted humanitarian aid and civil society programs across Ukraine as the country faces its fourth year of Russia's full-scale invasion. One of Trump's first acts in his second term was to freeze all U.S. foreign assistance for 90 days. He then worked alongside former ally Elon Musk to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Among the defunded organizations is Ukraine Conflict Observatory, the leading U.S.-backed initiative documenting Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children. A part of Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, the group will end its efforts to track and monitor illegally deported Ukrainian children as of July 1 due to funding cuts.
The White House also previously disbanded the U.S. Justice Department's War Crimes Accountability Team and fired a coordinator responsible for collecting data on Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
A Russian military court has convicted 184 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) captured in Kursk Oblast of acts of terrorism, Mediazona reported on June 25.
Ukraine first launched a surprise offensive into Russia's Kursk Oblast in August 2024. Ukrainian officials have said the incursion forced Russia to move resources away from its offensives in Eastern Ukraine.
Russia's military prosecutors office convicts Ukrainian POWs captured in Kursk Oblast on a regular basis, independent Russian outlet Mediazona reported.
The POWs captured in Kursk were charged with carrying out a grave terrorist act by a group of individuals, as outlined by the Russian Criminal Code.
Junior Lieutenant Yevhen Hoch was convicted of allegedly carrying out an act of terrorism by taking part in Ukraine's Kursk Oblast incursion.
Russia has waged its war against Ukraine since 2014 and initiated a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russian authorities accused Hoch of interfering with civilian evacuations for three weeks amid Ukraine's Kursk offensive and for "intimidating them by openly carrying and using combat weapons."
Russia regularly convicts people of politically motivated charges in an effort to silence opposition to its war against Ukraine.
The Russian 2nd Western District Military Court has carried out the sentences against the 184 Ukrainian POWs since the beginning of the year.
Moscow has gone after journalists in Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Ukrainian Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 and died after being tortured in Russian captivity. Roschyna's body was returned to Ukraine in February with missing organs.
Ukraine and the Council of Europe signed a historic agreement on June 25 to establish a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression, marking a major step toward holding Russia's leadership accountable for launching the full-scale invasion in 2022.
The agreement was signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky and Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset during a ceremony in Strasbourg, France – following more than three years of diplomatic efforts and deliberation.
Speaking at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Zelensky thanked the assembly and underscored the importance of justice.
"Everyone responsible for this war must be held to account," he said. "Every war criminal must face justice – including Putin... the crime of aggression must be recorded, judged, and punished."
Zelensky also praised PACE for its "real leadership" in taking a stand against Russia and developing the tribunal.
"It was here in this assembly, that the first call for such a tribunal was made," Zelensky said. "The idea was born here – and now it’s gaining real support from partner countries in Europe and beyond."
The Special Tribunal will be established within the framework of the Council of Europe and will have the mandate to prosecute senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression – defined as the decision to use armed force against another state, in violation of the United Nations Charter.
President Zelensky has long advocated for the creation of the tribunal, emphasizing the need to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials to justice. Ukrainian prosecutors have documented thousands of war crimes committed by Russian forces, including attacks on civilians, cultural landmarks, medical facilities, and reports of torture and forced deportations.
The tribunal is intended to close a key legal gap in existing international accountability mechanisms.
While the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Ukraine – and has already issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian official overseeing the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia – it cannot examine the crime of aggression due to jurisdictional constraints.
The new tribunal will complement the ICC's efforts by specifically targeting high-level officials responsible for starting the war – such as Putin and his inner circle.
In addition to the special tribunal, the Council of Europe’s Ukraine-related work includes the Register of Damage – an initiative that has already received more than 34,000 claims detailing losses and harms resulting from Russia's full-scale invasion.
The establishment of the register, and now the special tribunal, are important steps to ensure justice for Ukraine and its people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided not to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Brazil due to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Russian president's foreign policy aide Yuriy Ushakov said on June 25.
"This is related to certain difficulties in the context of the ICC’s demands, as you know, and precisely in this context, the Brazilian government was unable to take a clear position that would allow our president to participate in this meeting," Ushakov said.
Brazil is a member of the ICC and a signatory to the Rome Statute, meaning it is obliged to arrest Putin if he enters the country.
The BRICS summit, which is scheduled to take place on July 6–7, will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to Ushakov. Putin is expected to participate remotely via video.
BRICS, composed of Russia, China, India, Brazil, and other nations, is a group of emerging economies often portrayed as a counterweight to the Western-led world.
The ICC issued a warrant for the Russian leader's arrest in March 2023 over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In November 2024, Putin skipped the G20 summit in Brazil and sent Lavrov instead.
Earlier in June, Moscow said that Putin had received an official invitation to attend the G20 summit in South Africa, another ICC member state. The event is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg from Nov. 22 to 23.
In September 2024, Putin made a rare visit to Mongolia, which is also a signatory of the ICC, prompting criticism over the non-enforcement of the warrant.
Over 45 Ukrainians forcibly deported by Russia from Ukraine's occupied territories are being held in a basement at Russia's border with Georgia without food, water, and basic healthcare, independent media outlet Astra reported on June 21.
"We are in a basement without utilities: there is no shower or toilet, they don't feed us. Volunteers bring humanitarian aid, but it lasts for a couple of days and not for everyone," one of the held Ukrainians told Astra.
A decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Ukrainians still living in occupied territories to leave unless they "regulate their legal status," namely, obtaining Russian citizenship.
"We emphasize that these systematic deportations and persecutions are part of Russia's genocide policy against the Ukrainian people," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on March 21.
At least 45 Ukrainians have been held at the Verkhniy Lars border checkpoint between Georgia and Russia for several days.
One of the deported Ukrainians has been hospitalized as they await passage out of Russia and into Georgia.
"There were 8 of us, 3 days ago. Every day, more people are brought here and the number is growing. Now there are 45 people, some have been here for a month. There are disabled people and people with serious illnesses," one of the held Ukrainians said.
The basement facility has since 2023 held deported Ukrainians barred from entering the Russian Federation and the Ukrainian territories it occupies.
The held Ukrainians were denied entry into Georgia. Most did not have the necessary travel documents, but 16 Ukrainians with passports were denied entry as well, Astra reported, citing the non-profit organization Tbilisi Volunteers Organization.
"The basement is damp, there are drops of water on the ceiling, (it's hard) to breathe, everyone smokes, they don't let us outside. We sleep for four hours, taking turns. Some sleep on the floor," one of the deported Ukrainians said.
The basement only houses 17 sleeping spaces, but another 100 deported Ukrainians are expected to arrive at the facility, a volunteer told Astra.
Following a pause in deportations to Georgia in 2024, Russia has resumed deportations as Georgia prepares new immigration legislation, the Tbilisi Volunteers Organization says.
Serhiy Serdiuk, a resident of occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, was deported and banned from re-entering Russia and Ukraine's occupied territories for 40 years, the Guardian reported on June 21.
Russian authorities pressed Serdiuk, an educator, to continue work under Russia's imposed school curriculum.
Serdiuk and other staff at a school in Zaporizhzhia Oblast's Komysh-Zoria town refused and were met with threats.
Serdiuk was similarly deported to Georgia, from where he flew to Moldova and crossed back into Ukraine.
Due to Russia's illegal and unrecognized annexation of Ukraine's occupied territories, Ukrainian citizens are pressured to obtain Russian citizenship or face deportation and entry bans.
As of June 2025, Ukraine has documented 366 cases of sexual violence committed in connection with Russia's full-scale war, the Foreign Ministry reported on June 19, citing data from the Prosecutor General's Office.
The statement was published on the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, marked every year on June 19.
The victims include 231 women, 134 men, and 19 children. The documented crimes span rape, sexual torture, forced nudity, and other violent acts, many of which occurred in occupied territories or during the early stages of Russia's invasion.
Sexual violence in conflict is prohibited under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols, which mandate the protection of civilians, especially women and children. It is also recognized as a war crime under international law.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Russia is "grossly violating international humanitarian law" and the legal framework established by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The ministry said that Moscow has employed sexual violence "as a weapon of war" to terrorize civilians, destroy communities, and weaken resistance.
Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, raised the issue at the Security Council in April 2024, warning that such violence is being used against both civilians and prisoners of war.
In June 2024, the Kyiv Independent identified two Russian soldiers implicated in the rape of women during Russia's occupation of parts of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts in March 2022.
One of them, Mykola Senenko, was formally charged by Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office for a rape committed in Kherson Oblast.
Arkady Gostev, head of Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service, was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for creating a network of torture chambers in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) announced on June 19.
Gostev was found guilty of orchestrating the transformation of captured Ukrainian prisons into torture sites used to detain and brutalize members of the local resistance. The SBU said victims were subjected to "brutal torture" intended to break their will and force submission to the Kremlin rule.
According to investigators, Gostev personally oversaw the establishment of torture facilities and pushed for their inclusion in Russia's national prison registry through the Justice Ministry.
The court ruled he committed "actions aimed at violently changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power."
"Comprehensive measures are being taken to bring him to justice for crimes against our state," the SBU said, noting that Gostev remains in Russia.
Kherson Oblast, which stretches from the Dnipro River to the Black Sea, remains partially occupied, with the east-bank territories still under Russian control.
Gostev joins a growing list of senior Russian officials charged in absentia with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the administration of occupied territories.
Ukraine has also targeted collaborators working with the occupation authorities.
On June 18, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) confirmed the assassination of Mykhailo Hrytsai, a Russian-appointed deputy mayor in Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, for his role in organizing repression and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Emergency services in Kyiv have recovered fragments of cluster munitions following the overnight Russian missile and drone attack on June 17, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported, calling it further evidence of Russia's "genocide" against Ukrainians.
"In the capital's Nyvky neighborhood, emergency workers are now finding these kinds of cluster munition parts," Klitschko said in a statement shared on social media. "Another clear sign of the genocide Russia is committing against Ukrainians."
Cluster munitions are banned under international law by more than 100 countries due to their indiscriminate nature and the long-term threat they pose to civilians, especially when unexploded submunitions remain hidden in residential areas.
While Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, international humanitarian organizations have repeatedly condemned the use of such weapons in populated areas. Ukraine uses cluster munitions on the battlefield against Russian forces.
The mayor's comments came hours after one of the largest and deadliest attacks on the Ukrainian capital in months, in which at least 15 people were killed and nearly 100 injured. The Russian strike, which lasted nearly nine hours, included waves of kamikaze drones, ballistic missiles, and what authorities now confirm were banned explosive parts.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called the assault "one of the most horrifying attacks on Kyiv," saying more than 440 drones and 32 missiles were launched across Ukraine overnight.
"Such attacks are pure terrorism," he said in a statement on social media. "And the whole world, the U.S., and Europe must finally respond as civilized societies respond to terrorists."
Zelensky confirmed that damage had been reported in eight districts of Kyiv, with emergency workers still searching for survivors beneath the rubble of a destroyed apartment block.
He added that strikes also hit Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, and Kyiv regions. "Fifteen people are confirmed dead. My condolences to their families and loved ones," Zelensky said.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also condemned the attack, calling it a "massive and brutal strike" timed deliberately to coincide with the G7 summit, which is taking place in Canada on June 16-17.
Connexion
