Four years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s list of human rights abuses continues to grow

Author: Devin Windelspecht, MSc

February 26, 2026

HRRC draws attention to the breakdown in international humanitarian law, human rights law, and laws governing armed conflict at the four-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. We stress that so long as such violations go unpunished, the international community risks abandoning hard-fought norms governing human rights and humanitarian protections in wartime. We express great concern that the international community’s inaction regarding Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, Israel’s genocide in Gaza, genocide and ethnic cleansing in Sudan, and the U.S.’ illegal invasion of Venezeula – for instance – represents an ongoing and potentially irreversible collapse of global peace and security. 

A woman navigates a debris-filled street where destroyed Russian military vehicles stand in Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. [Image credit: AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File]

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the long list of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, and war crimes perpetrated by Russia against Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens in territory illegally occupied by the Russian military continues to grow. 

Russia began its full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in what has been described as a war of aggression and a violation of Resolution 3314 of the UN General Assembly, which defines wars made outside of self-defense or without the authorization of the UN Security Council as representing “a crime against international peace.” 

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and human rights abuses have been carried out with impunity by Russian soldiers, mercenaries working for the Russian state, and Russian government officials. Examples of abuses include the bombing of a theater serving as a refuge for civilians during Russia’s attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which killed hundreds of civilians and has been described as a “clear war crime” by Amnesty International; the massacre of civilians in then-occupied Bucha, a town outside of Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, described as likely constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity; and widespread allegations of torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, journalists, and Ukrainian civilians living in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, also constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

Since the start of the war, Russia has kidnapped at least 20,000 and up to 35,000 Ukrainian children from occupied territories in Ukraine, according to the European Union, and have then deported them to Russia or Belarus and forcibly placed them with Russian families. Some children have reportedly been placed in “educational” camps where they are trained in military tactics and pro-Russian and anti-Western propaganda. The forced abductions of Ukrainian children is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, according to a resolution by the UN General Assembly, which prohibits the forcible transfer or deportation of protected persons from an occupied territory.

Most recently, Russia has pummeled Ukraine’s electrical grid during the winter of 2025 to 2026, forcing tens of thousands in the country to endure cold, often unlivable conditions during a particularly harsh winter. The intentional and indiscriminate attacking of civilian infrastructure such as energy grids represents a violation of international humanitarian law. Attacks on civilians also increased dramatically in 2025 —the deadliest year for civilians in Ukraine since the war’s first year of conflict in 2022.

Russian authorities have consistently denied allegations of violating international law, for instance by claiming that Russia was “forced” to invade Ukraine due to alleged Western security risks to Russia. It has dismissed accusations of crimes against humanity, such as the abduction of children, as “lies,” and has referred to reports of massacres including in Bucha as “fakes.” 

As Ukraine enters its fourth year enduring Russia’s war of aggression, human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law and the laws of war are promised to only continue. Meanwhile, international justice mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), remain paralyzed as the subjects of arrest warrants for crimes such as the abduction of children – including Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin – remain in Russia, which is outside of the ICC’s jurisdiction. Putin has even been welcomed to visit in person countries such as Tajikistan that are members of the ICC and are therefore legally obligated to arrest and transfer Putin to ICC custody, showcasing the continued declining power of international law. 

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Glossary 

• Accusations – actions a person, state, or other entity is accused of doing, often illegally. 

• Allegations – accusations that have not yet been proven in a legal system. 

• Constituting – meeting the criteria for. 

• Crime against humanity – inhumane acts such as enslavement, torture, or widespread massacres of civilians or noncombatants. Can take place both within and outside of wartime. 

• Custody – detention of a person by a relevant authority. 

• Deported – forcibly removing someone from a country to another country. 

• Ethnic cleansing – an attempt to remove a given racial or ethnic group from a given territory, often through violence or force. 

• Genocide – the attempt to destroy, in whole or in part, a given ethnic, religious, political, or racial group. 

• Human rights abuse – a violation of international human rights as outlined by internationally signed agreements such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights. 

• Humanitarian law – international law that protects the rights of citizens in conflict and crises zones. 

• Impunity – an action that is taken without consequences. 

• Indiscriminate – widespread; without concern for differentiating targets. 

• International Criminal Court – the court charged with trying individuals of the greatest international crimes, including crimes against humanity and genocide. 

• International law – laws agreed to by and/or considered legally binding to the whole of the international community. 

• Invasion – a war against a country by another designed to take and hold territory within the invaded country.

• Massacre – widespread killing of noncombatants, often in a short period of time. 

• Mercenary – a soldier who fights for a country, corporation, or other entity for money. 

• Obligated – required to by law. 

• Paralyzed – unable to act. 

• Perpetrated – carried out by. 

• Propaganda – pro-state information designed to create loyalty to a country and/or hostility to perceived enemies and often not based on facts. 

• Pummeled – inflicted serious harm or intensity, in this case regarding missile and drone strikes. 

• Violation – breaking the terms or rules of. 

• War crime – a crime against international agreements on how wars should be fought, including by not limited to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit torture, abuse of prisoners of war, and targeting of civilians in conflict. 

• War of aggression – an unprovoked war carried out for reasons other than self-defense or as a humanitarian intervention to prevent genocide or crimes against humanity. 

• UN General Assembly – the body made up of all nations that belong to the United Nations, with each country having a single equal vote. 

• UN Security Council – a body of the United Nations created to protect international peace. According to the UN, only the Security Council can approve military action against another country for reasons other than self-defense.