Ukraine strengthens Pokrovsk positions amid infiltration by estimated 200 Russian troops; Lukoil selling overseas assets after US sanctions. What we know on day 1,343
Russia has been using drones to chase and drop bombs on civilians who live near the frontline in Ukraine – hounding them out of their homes and forcing thousands to flee whole areas in a crime against humanity, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has found. In its report, the commission says civilians have been chased for long distances by drones with cameras and sometimes then attacked while seeking shelter. Its findings were based on interviews with 226 people including victims, witnesses, aid workers and local authorities as well as hundreds of verified online videos. The attacks described in the report occurred in three regions in southern Ukraine, near the frontline and across the Dnipro river from Russian forces, over more than a year.
“These attacks were committed as part of a coordinated policy to drive out civilians from those territories and amount to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population,” says the 17-page report to be presented to the UN general assembly this week. One woman from Kherson was pursued by a drone as she parked her car and then attacked and injured in her garage. Later that day two more drones struck her home which she then abandoned. Russia denies intentionally attacking civilians in Ukraine but has openly targeted and killed thousands of them. The Guardian has previously reported on the “safari” hunts conducted against civilians by Russian drone operators. Ukraine has also sometimes hit civilian infrastructure targets in Russia and in Russian-held parts of Ukraine, though on a far smaller scale and usually with the justification that the targets have a role in either directly supporting or generating revenue to support the war.
