Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine amount to war crimes, UN-backed investigation finds

Natali Sevriukova is overcome with emotion as she stands outside her destroyed apartment building following a rocket attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Stanislav says goodbye to his 2-year-old son, David, and wife, Anna, after they boarded a train that will take them to Lviv, from the station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3. 2022. Stanislav stayed to fight as his family sought refuge in a neighboring country. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A child in a stroller is lifted across an improvised path as people flee Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Ukrainian emergency personnel and police officers evacuate injured pregnant woman Iryna Kalinina, 32, from a maternity hospital that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. "Kill me now!" she screamed, as they struggled to save her life at another hospital even closer to the frontline. The baby was born dead, and a half-hour later, Iryna died too. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A man runs after recovering items from a burning shop following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

An elderly woman is assisted while crossing the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by Ukrainian troops designed to slow any Russian military advance, while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A woman reacts as she waits for a train trying to leave Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Cadets practice with gas masks during a lesson in a bomb shelter on the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Armored vehicles destroyed during the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian armed forces lie on a bank of the frozen Siverskiy Donets River in the recently-liberated village of Bogorodychne, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

An explosion erupts from an apartment building at 110 Mytropolytska St., after a Russian army tank fired on it in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. On the seventh floor of the building, two elderly women Lydya and Nataliya were stuck in their apartment because they couldn't make it down to the shelter, and were killed in the explosion. The two heavily burned bodies were buried by neighbors in front of the building. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Destroyed Russian tanks sit on a main road after battles near Brovary, north of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Ira Gavriluk holds her cat as she stands near the bodies of her husband and brother who were killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Ludmila, left, says goodbye to her granddaughter, Kristina, who, with her son, Yaric, departs by train from Odesa, southern Ukraine, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The body of a man with his hands tied behind his back lies on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A man and child ride a bicycle as bodies of civilians lie in the street in the formerly Russian-occupied Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Children look out of the window of an unheated Lviv-bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A civilian wears a Vladimir Putin mask as a spoof, while a Ukrainian soldier stands atop a destroyed Russian tank in Bucha, Ukraine, outside of Kyiv, on April 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Nina Shevchenko mourns over the body of her 15-year-old son, Artem Shevchenko, who was killed in a Russian attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

The body of an elderly woman lies inside a house in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Elderly men lie in beds at a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, Donetsk district, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. At least 35 men and women, some in wheelchairs and most of them with mobility issues, were helped by volunteers to flee from the region that has been under attack in the last few weeks. They are being transported to Khmelnytskyi, in western Ukraine. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Ukrainian soldiers carry the coffin of Volodymyr Losev, 38, during his funeral in Zorya Truda in the Odesa region of Ukraine, Monday, May 16, 2022. The 38-year-old Ukrainian volunteer soldier was killed on May 7 when the military vehicle he was driving ran over a mine in eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Nila Zelinska holds her granddaughter's doll found in her destroyed house in Potashnya on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Zelinska had just returned to her hometown after escaping war to find out she is homeless. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Volodymyr, 66, injured from a strike, sits on a chair in his damaged apartment in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, July 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

Relatives and friends pay their last respects to Liza, a 4-year-old girl killed in a Russian attack, during a mourning ceremony in an Orthodox church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Sunday, July 17, 2022. Wearing a blue denim jacket with flowers, Liza was among 23 people killed, including two boys aged 7 and 8, in a missile strike three days earlier in Vinnytsia. Her mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among the scores injured. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Anastasia Ohrimenko, 26, is comforted by relatives as she cries next to the coffin of her husband, Yury Styglyuk, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on Aug. 24, in Maryinka, Donetsk, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Ukrainian soldiers fire artillery towards Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/LIBKOS)

A woman warms her dog in her coat in Kivsharivka, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022. Residents in Kivsharivka have been living without gas, electricity or running water for around three weeks. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Ukrainian family members reunite for the first time since Russian troops withdrew from the Kherson region in the village of Tsentralne, southern Ukraine, on Nov. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A resident wounded after a Russian attack lies inside an ambulance before being taken to a hospital in Kherson, southern Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A woman transporting the coffin holding the body of her son, a soldier who was killed in fighting with Russians, sits in a boat crossing the Siverskyi Donets River near Staryi Saltiv, Kharkiv region on Wednesday Jan. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Erik Marmor)

A woman walks with a flashlight during a power outage in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Ukrainian military doctors treat an injured comrade who was evacuated from the battlefield at the hospital in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. The serviceman did not survive. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The body of a woman lies under rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Relatives mourn over the body of Oleksiy Zavadskyi, a Ukrainian serviceman who died in combat on Jan. 15 in Bakhmut, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Ambulance paramedic Oleksandr Konovalov performs CPR on a girl injured by shelling in a residential area, next to her father, left, after arriving at the city hospital in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. The girl did not survive. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Residents prepare tea in a basement being used as a bomb shelter in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A woman takes shelter in a basement with no electricity in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, March 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

On Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin launches an invasion of Ukraine from the north, east and south. He says the "special military operation" is aimed at "demilitarization" and "denazification" of the country to protect ethnic Russians, prevent Kyiv's NATO membership and to keep it in Russia's "sphere of influence." Ukraine and the West say it's an illegal act of aggression against a country with a democratically elected government and a Jewish president whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust.

Russian troops quickly reach Kyiv's outskirts, but their attempts to capture the capital and other cities in the northeast meet stiff resistance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy records a video outside his headquarters to show he is staying and remains in charge.

About the photo: Traffic jams are seen as people leave the city of Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. 

On March 2, Russia claims control of the southern city of Kherson. In the opening days of March, Russian forces also seize the rest of the Kherson region and occupy a large part of the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest.

The Russian army soon gets stuck near Kyiv, and its convoys — stretching along highways leading to the Ukrainian capital — become easy prey for Ukrainian artillery and drones.

About the photo: Russian's army tanks move down a street on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 11, 2022. 

Moscow announces the withdrawal of forces from Kyiv and other areas March 29, saying it will focus on the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russia-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces since 2014 following the illegal annexation of Crimea.

About the photo: People with Ukrainian flags walk toward Russian army trucks during a rally against the Russian occupation in Kherson, Ukraine, on March 20, 2022. As Russian forces sought to tighten their hold on Melitopol, hundreds of residents took to the streets to demand the mayor's release. 

The Russian pullback from Kyiv reveals hundreds of bodies of civilians in mass graves or left in the streets of the town of Bucha, many of them bearing signs of torture in scenes that prompt world leaders to say Russia should be held accountable for possible war crimes.

About the photo: Police work to identify civilians who were killed during the Russian occupation in Bucha, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, before sending the bodies to the morgue, Wednesday, April 6, 2022. 

On April 9, a Russian missile strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk kills 52 civilians and wounds over 100.

Intense battles rage for the strategic port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, and Russian air strikes and artillery bombardment reduce much of it to ruins.

About the photo: People board buses during their evacuation, with a Soviet MiG-17 fighter jet monument in the background, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Saturday, April 9, 2022. After the bombing of the train station, residents continued their attempts to leave the city on buses and other transports. 

On April 13, the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, is hit by Ukrainian missiles and sinks the next day, damaging national pride.

About the photo: The Russian missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet is seen anchored in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, on Sept. 11, 2008. 

On May 16, Ukrainian defenders of the giant Azovstal steel mill, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, agree to surrender to Russian forces after a nearly three-month siege. Mariupol's fall cuts Ukraine off from the Azov coast and secures a land corridor from the Russian border to Crimea.

About this photo: In this photo provided by Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office, a Ukrainian soldier stands inside the ruined Azovstal steel plant prior to surrender to the Russian forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, May 16, 2022. 

On May 18, Finland and Sweden submit their applications to join NATO in a major blow to Moscow over the expansion of the military alliance.

About the photo: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg displays documents as Sweden and Finland applied for membership in Brussels, Belgium, May 18, 2022. 

More Western weapons flow into Ukraine, including U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

About the photo: Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions from a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region June 18, 2022.

On June 30, Russian troops pull back from Snake Island, located off the Black Sea port of Odesa and seized in the opening days of the invasion.

About the photo: In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Press Office on Thursday, July 7, 2022, Ukrainian soldiers install the state flag on Snake island, in the Black Sea.

On July 22, Russia and Ukraine, with mediation by Turkey and the United Nations, agree on a deal to unblock supplies of grain stuck in Ukraine's Black Sea ports, ending a standoff that threatened global food security.

About the photo: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and U.N. Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, sit as Sergei Shoigu, Russia's Defense Minister, and Hulusi Akar, Turkey's Defense Minister, shake hands during a signing ceremony at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, July 22, 2022.

On July 29, a missile strike hits a prison in the Russia-controlled eastern town of Olenivka where Ukrainian soldiers captured in Mariupol were held, killing at least 53. Ukraine and Russia trade blame for the attack.

About the photo: In this photo taken from video a view of a destroyed barrack at a prison in Olenivka, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces, eastern Ukraine, Friday, July 29, 2022.

On Aug. 9, powerful explosions strike an air base in Crimea. More blasts hit a power substation and ammunition depots there a week later. signaling the vulnerability of the Moscow-annexed Black Sea peninsula that Russia has used as a major supply hub for the war. Ukraine's top military officer later acknowledges that the attacks on Crimea were launched by Kyiv's forces.

About the photo: Rising smoke can be seen from the beach at Saky after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military airbase near Novofedorivka, Crimea, Aug. 9, 2022. 

On Aug. 20, Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, dies in a car bomb explosion outside Moscow that the Russian authorities blame on Ukraine.

About the photo: Philosopher Alexander Dugin speaks during the final farewell ceremony for his daughter Daria Dugina in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. 

On Sept. 6, the Ukrainian forces launch a surprise counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, quickly forcing Russia to pull back from broad areas held for months.

About the photo: A Ukrainian national guard serviceman stands atop a destroyed Russian tank in an area near the border with Russia, in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Sept. 19, 2022. 

On Sept. 21, Putin orders mobilization of 300,000 reservists, an unpopular move that prompts hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee to neighboring countries to avoid recruitment. At the same time, Russia hastily stages illegal "referendums" in Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on whether to become part of Russia. The votes are widely dismissed as a sham by Ukraine and the West.

About the photo: Riot police block a street during a protest against mobilization in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. 

On Sept. 30, Putin signs documents to annex the four regions at a Kremlin ceremony.

About the photo: From left, Moscow-appointed head of Kherson Region Vladimir Saldo, Moscow-appointed head of Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Denis Pushilin, leader of self-proclaimed of the Donetsk People's Republic and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic pose for a photo during a ceremony to sign the treaties for four regions of Ukraine to join Russia, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. 

On Oct. 8, a truck laden with explosives blows up on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia's mainland in an attack that Putin blames on Ukraine. Russia responds with missile strikes on Ukraine's power plants and other key infrastructure.

After the first wave of attacks on Oct. 10, the barrage continues on a regular basis in the months that follow, resulting in blackouts and power rationing across the country.

About the photo: Flame and smoke rise from the Crimean Bridge connecting Russian mainland and the Crimean peninsula over the Kerch Strait, in Kerch, Crimea, Oct. 8, 2022.

On Nov. 9, Russia announces a pullback from the city of Kherson under a Ukrainian counteroffensive, abandoning the only regional center Moscow captured, in a humiliating retreat for the Kremlin.

About the photo: Ukrainian servicemen check the trenches dug by Russian soldiers in a retaken area in Kherson region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022. 

On Dec. 5, the Russian military says Ukraine used drones to target two bases for long-range bombers deep inside Russian territory. Another strike takes places later in the month, underlining Ukraine's readiness to up the ante and revealing gaps in Russian defenses.

About the photo: Ukrainian soldiers watch a drone feed from an underground command center in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022. 

On Dec. 21, Zelenskyy visits the United States on his first trip abroad since the war began, meeting with President Joe Biden to secure Patriot air defense missile systems and other weapons and addressing Congress.

About the photo: Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, react as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presents lawmakers with a Ukrainian flag autographed by front-line troops in Bakhmut, in Ukraine's contested Donetsk province, as he addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022. 

On Jan. 1, just moments into the New Year, scores of freshly mobilized Russian soldiers are killed by a Ukrainian missile strike on the city of Makiivka. Russia's Defense Ministry says 89 troops were killed, while Ukrainian officials put the death toll in the hundreds.

About the photo: Workers clean rubbles after Ukrainian rocket strike in Makiivka, in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023.

After months of ferocious fighting, Russia declares the capture of the salt-mining town of Soledar on Jan. 12, although Kyiv does not acknowledge it until days later. Moscow also presses its offensive to seize the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut.

About the photo: Ukrainian servicemen fire a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. 

On Jan. 14, when Russia launches another wave of strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities, a Russian missile hits an apartment building in the city of Dnipro, killing 45.

About the photo: Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistory building leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023. 

On Feb. 20, U.S. President Joe Biden makes a surprise visit to Kyiv where he meets with the Ukrainian president in a remarkable and defiant display of solidarity.

About the photo: US President Joe Biden, center, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and Olena Zelenska, left, spouse of President Zelenskyy, at Mariinsky Palace during an unannounced visit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023.