Volnovakha is a city in Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Volnovakha Raion within the oblast. As of January 2022, it had a population of 21,166.
Human rights violations were committed by the warring sides during the second war in Chechnya. Both Russian officials and Chechen rebels have been regularly and repeatedly accused of committing war crimes including kidnapping, torture, murder, hostage taking, looting, rape, decapitation, and assorted other breaches of the law of war. International and humanitarian organizations, including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of international humanitarian law.
The Novye Aldi massacre was the mass murder of Chechen civilians on February 5, 2000, in which Russian forces went on a cleansing operation (zachistka), summarily executing dozens. The village had been cluster-bombed a day prior to the massacre, and local residents urged to come out for inspection the next day. Upon entering the village, Russian forces shot their victims with automatic fire at close range. The killings were accompanied by looting, rape, arson and robbery. As a result of the deadly rampage by Russian forces, up to 82 civilians were killed in the spree. Houses of civilians were burnt in an attempt to destroy evidence of summary executions and other crimes. Looting took place on a large scale and organised manner.
Altogether, 108 civilian protesters and 13 police officers were killed in Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, which was the culmination of the Euromaidan protest movement. The deaths occurred in January and February 2014; most of them on 20 February, when police snipers fired on anti-government activists in Kyiv. The slain activists are known in Ukraine as the Heavenly Hundred or Heavenly Company. By June 2016, 55 people had been charged in relation to the deaths of protesters, including 29 former members of the Berkut special police force, ten titushky or loyalists of the former government, and ten former government officials.
On 18 March 2014, a Ukrainian soldier and a Russian Cossack paramilitary were killed in the first case of bloodshed during the Russo-Ukrainian War and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.
The Volnovakha bus attack was an attack on a highway checkpoint near the village of Buhas outside of the Volnovakha municipality in the Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on 13 January 2015. It resulted in the deaths of 12 passengers of an intercity bus and injuries to 18 others in the area. The attack was the largest single loss of life since the signing of the Minsk Protocol in September 2014, which attempted to halt the War in Donbas. The incident has been labeled an "act of terror" by both the Ukrainian authorities as well as the rebels.
The Sparta Battalion or 80th Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion "Sparta" named after A. S. Pavlov is a special purpose unit of the Russian Armed Forces. Until 2023, unit was part of Russian people's militia military unit of the Russian republic of Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. The unit has been fighting against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbas war and the 2022 Russian invasion. Formed in 2014, it was initially led by the Russian-born Arsen Pavlov until his death in October 2016, and then by Vladimir Zhoga, from Sloviansk, until his death in March 2022.
Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have committed or been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the aiding and abetting of crimes by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These have included murder, torture, terror, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, enforced disappearance, child abductions, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, inhumane acts, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, use of banned chemical weapons, and wanton destruction.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed war crimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets, including on hospitals, medical facilities and on the energy grid; indiscriminate attacks on densely-populated areas; the abduction, torture and murder of civilians; forced deportations; sexual violence; destruction of cultural heritage; and the killing and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The battle of Bucha was part of the Kyiv offensive in the Russian invasion of Ukraine for control of the city of Bucha. The combatants were elements of the Russian Armed Forces and Ukrainian Ground Forces. The battle lasted from 27 February to 31 March 2022 and ended with the withdrawal of Russian forces. The battle was part of a larger tactic to encircle Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine.
The battle of Volnovakha was a military engagement which lasted from 25 February 2022 until 12 March 2022, as part of the Eastern Ukraine offensive during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian and DPR forces engaged Ukrainian forces at the small city of Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast, which was located close to pre-invasion front line.
The Bucha massacre was the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war by the Russian Armed Forces during the fight for and occupation of the city of Bucha as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photographic and video evidence of the massacre emerged on 1 April 2022 after Russian forces withdrew from the city.
Sexual violence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been committed by Armed Forces of Russia, including the use of mass rape as a weapon of war. According to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the victims of sexual assault by Russian soldiers ranged from 4 years old to over 80 years old.
Filtration camps, also referred to as concentration camps, are camps used by Russian forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine to register, interrogate, and detain Ukrainian citizens in regions under Russian occupation before transferring them into Russia, sometimes as part of forced population transfers. Filtration camp detainees undergo a system of security checks and personal data collection. Detainees are subject to widespread torture, killings, rape, starvation and other grave human rights violations.
Vadim Yevgenyevich Shishimarin is a Russian soldier who was the first person to go on trial for war crimes committed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 18 May 2022, he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting an unarmed civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov. On 23 May, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Shishimarin's lawyer lodged an appeal and on 29 July 2022, his sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison. Law professor Chris Jenks suggested that the legal reasoning, conviction and sentencing appeared to be flawed.
In July 2022, video recordings of the torture, castration and murder of a Ukrainian POW in the Pryvillia sanatorium by Russian servicemen were published online. Taking place during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the video caused an international outcry and brought strong condemnation from a number of human rights bodies. Representatives of both Ukraine and the US characterized the event as a war crime.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both Ukrainian and Russian/separatist prisoners of war have suffered several forms of abuse, such as mistreatment, exposure to public curiosity, torture, or even execution.
The trial of Anton Cherednik was held in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don from April until November 2023. Taking place during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the first war crimes trial of the conflict to be held by Russia. Cherednik, a member of the Ukrainian Marine Corps, was accused of murdering a civilian he suspected of being a Russian spy, taking part in terrorist activities and attempting to "forcibly seize power" in the Donetsk People's Republic. Cherednik pleaded guilty to murder on April 4 but denied the other charges. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to nineteen years' imprisonment.
Anton Sopov [1] 
