This page contains a list of the reports being provided to us of war crimes allegedly committed by the Russian Federation in Ukrainian military theatre, those reports having been prepared, we are told, by the Office of European / Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine. The organisation's website is here:
The material is distressing, as with all war crimes materials.
We have received documents prepared by an institution of the central government of Ukraine based in wartime Kyiv, and we have been promised that we will be provided with such reports on a daily basis. We have decided to publish the reports we have been sent because those reports are apparently being distributed amongst the diplomatic, media, political and other international communities of a number of foreign countries.
The reports also contain a substantial quantity of detail and structure, which suggests that the data they contain is being compiled in an organised way. That alone is not sufficient testament to their credibility; but it is a start to the business of creating a database of alleged war crimes committed in Ukrainian theatre.
Hence we think it is in the greater good that these reports are available to everyone, not just a select and potentially secretive readership.
We have been told expressly that these reports will only contain details of war crimes alleged to have been committed by Russian armed forces, the implication being that details of war crimes being committed by Ukrainian armed forces is not being collected or published in these reports.
Of course this one-sided quality of the reports we are receiving is a matter for regret, because it implies that the author(s) of the reports is/are not impartial. Nevertheless the partial nature of war crimes reporting during periods of armed combat is we acknowledge virtually inevitable and all reports we may receive are liable to include such an element of partiality.
We urge a Russian government agency to approach us with equivalent reports in the opposite direction, namely lists of allegations of war crimes violations by Ukrainian armed forces. Should they do so, and should those reports appear to have been compiled in a comprehensive and colourable way, we will publish those reports as well.
Note also:
The fact that we publish these reports does not mean that we stand by the reports, agree that they are accurate or acknowledge that they have any probative value.
Should we form the view that any particular report has probative value, we will assert that separately and we will explain why we have reached that conclusion.
Should our war crimes investigation unit conclude that the assertions contained in these reports merits the opening of a war crimes investigation, we will list that investigation separately on our war crimes investigations register.
We like to work comprehensively and thoroughly. Hence our work takes time. The fact that an entry on one of the following reports has not yet resulted in the opening of an investigation on our war crimes investigation register does not entail that we consider the report meritless. It may simply be that we have not got round to conducting our preliminary queries yet. We are already overloaded with a backlog of reports each of which needs to be studied and questions asked before deciding what to do with it.
Our mission is to investigate credible assertions of war crimes in a calm, neutral and professional manner. Like all legal process, this involves time and delay.
Nevertheless where allegations are made in the context of a war with lots of fast-moving events, we consider the publication of war crimes allegations to be a public good, because it facilitates transparency in the war crimes investigation process, a quality that war crimes investigations rarely have.
We welcome all comments upon the assertions made in the following lists, either corroborative or denunciatory. Please send all such comments to paladinswarcrimesukraine@gmail.com. Because we are receiving a lot of correspondence at the moment, on all sorts of subjects, we respectfully urge anyone with such comments to write to this email address only without cc to another of our email addresses. Otherwise we will be unable to consider the comments provided. We need to apply this rule to prevent our other lines of communication from being blocked up by commentaries on war crimes issues.
We emphasise in the making of war crimes reports the importance of collecting contemporaneous evidence to corroborate the allegations made. Unless an attempt is made to collect contemporaneous evidence in an impartial and thoroughgoing way, the greater majority of war crimes investigations will unfortunately end without prosecution because the essential contemporary evidence will have been lost. (Evidence collected after the event becomes of exponentially decreasing probative value as time goes on, as all criminal lawyers know.)
We repeat our request that we receive equivalent reports from a Russian authority or associated body setting out colourable war crimes allegations against the Ukrainian armed forces.
If we cease to publish reports on this webpage, it is because we are not being provided with them or we have concluded that they are serially unreliable for some reason and hence ought not to be published.
Anyone who seeks further information about the subjects addressed in these reports should please email us at thepaladins2021@gmail.com and identify their interest, whereupon we will consider their request.
1. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 19 April 2022
2. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 20 April 2022
3. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 21 April 2022
4. Ukrainian government disinformation digest as of 20 April 2022
5. Ukrainian government disinformation digest as of 21 April 2022
6. Comment by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 19 April 2022 on the ICJ judgment Ukraine v Russia (n.b. this comment is not in any manner endorsed by The Paladins; we provide it in the interests of transparency)
7. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 22 April 2022
8. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 23 April 2022
9. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 24 April 2022
10. Ukrainian government disinformation digest as of 24 April 2022
11. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 25 April 2022
- to follow -
12. Ukrinian government disinformation digest as of 25 April 2022
12. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 26 April 2022
13. Ukrainian government report of war crimes allegedly committed 28 April 2022
This list will continue to be updated as long as we keep receiving the relevant documents. Inclusion of any document in the list does not indicate endorsement of its content by The Paladins.