Topic: War crimes
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Russian strikes on Kharkiv and oblast wound 12 civilians, damage residential and civilian infrastructure
Russian forces attacked Kharkiv city and nine populated areas across Kharkiv Oblast over the past day, wounding 12 civilians and damaging apartment buildings, a hotel, gas stations, a kindergarten, and vehicles. On the morning of 18 October, strikes hit the Osnovianskyi district of Kharkiv, and a Russian FPV drone struck a civilian car in Staryi Saltiv, injuring a married couple and prompting a war-crimes investigation.
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Russian drone strike on Odesa residential building injures two, including a child
On 18 October, a Russian Shahed-type kamikaze drone struck a 19-storey residential building in Odesa, damaging the roof and top-floor apartments and injuring two people, one of them a teenage girl. The strike came the same night as Russian attacks on energy infrastructure across southern Odesa Oblast, which left around 24,000 households without power.
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Russian airstrikes hit Kherson residential district, killing ambulance driver and wounding civilians including two children
Russian forces struck the Korabelnyi district of Kherson with eight guided aerial bombs in two airstrikes within roughly an hour on the morning of October 17. A 64-year-old driver of an emergency medical service brigade was killed in a repeat strike that hit after medics had arrived at the scene. A paramedic and a nurse were among the wounded, and casualties included an 11-year-old girl and a one-month-old infant from a family of three hospitalized in moderate condition. A 58-year-old man was later hospitalized in a coma with skull fractures and an open head injury, and was reported to have died in hospital. Ten multi-storey residential buildings, a supermarket, administrative buildings and a Red Cross office were damaged; rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble.
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Russian forces executed captured Ukrainian soldiers on Hulyaipole direction, Ukraine opens war crime investigation
Russian servicemembers, believed to be from the 38th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, executed captured Ukrainian service members on the Hulyaipole direction in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine's military reported on October 17. Spokesperson Maksym Kravchuk of the "South" force grouping said intercepts captured orders to "finish off" and "zero out" the unarmed prisoners, and Ukrainian forces also obtained drone video of the scene. Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General opened a pretrial investigation under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine for a war crime causing death.
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Russian missile strike hits residential area in Zaporizhzhia, injuring five including a child
Russian forces struck a residential area in Zaporizhzhia around 5 a.m. on 17 October with multiple missile strikes, damaging multi-storey apartment buildings and injuring five civilians, including an 11-year-old girl. The blast wave also damaged the office of the Suspilne Zaporizhzhia broadcaster, though no staff were inside. The attack was part of a broader overnight Russian assault on multiple Ukrainian cities that also hit Kryvyi Rih and Kherson.
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Odesa court convicts nine military recruitment staff for illegal detentions and violence
The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa found nine employees of a district territorial centre of recruitment (TCC and SP) guilty of illegally detaining men and using violence during mobilization. Seven received real prison sentences of up to seven years and one month, while the remaining two received suspended or alternative sentences. Two further TCC employees who denied guilt remain under judicial review.
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Ukrainian search expedition finds about 30 remains of 1944 massacre victims in Polish village of Laskiv
A Ukrainian search expedition discovered approximately 30 sets of human remains at an Orthodox cemetery in the village of Laskiv in Poland's Lublin Voivodeship. The remains are identified as Ukrainians killed in a March 1944 attack by units of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and Peasant Battalions (Bataliony Chłopskie). The dig was commissioned by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and carried out by the communal enterprise 'Dolya' under a Polish permit issued in August 2026.
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Russian drone strike hits Rivne university, injuring dozens
On the morning of 13 October a Russian drone struck a building of Rivne State Humanitarian University in the centre of Rivne, setting it on fire, damaging the second floor and façade, and injuring dozens of people. Most of the wounded were university administrative staff; all students were in shelters at the time. The Faculty of Music Arts building was almost completely burned out, and Ukrainian authorities opened a war-crimes investigation.
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Russia hits Ukraine with missiles, loitering munitions and 108 drones overnight; three killed in Kharkiv
Russia launched a combined overnight air attack on Ukraine on October 12–13, firing five Iskander-M/S-400 ballistic missiles, nine Banderole/Dan-T loitering munitions and 108 strike drones — most of the Shahed type, many jet-powered — from multiple Russian and occupied-Ukrainian directions. Ukrainian air defense shot down or suppressed 88 of the drones, but direct hits were recorded at 17 locations and falling debris at another seven. A multi-storey block in the city's Kholodnohirskyi district suffered a collapsed entrance section; three people were killed and others injured.
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Russian forces strike civilian column during so-called evacuation from Kupiansk
On 13 October, Russian forces struck a column of civilians being led out of Kupiansk, Kharkiv Oblast, toward the Shebelinka–Ostrohozk gas pipeline during a Russian-organised so-called "evacuation," causing casualties. Ukraine's 2nd National Guard Corps "Khartiia" said the group, which included two women, a child and several men, came under mortar and artillery fire from the eastern bank of the Oskil River. The Joint Forces Command (UOS) said it recorded the strike and was clarifying the number of casualties; Joint Forces spokesperson Viktor Trehubov said preliminary information indicated a drone (UAV) was used.
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Eleven children, including an infant, returned from Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast to Ukraine-controlled territory
Eleven children aged from 1 year and 4 months to 17 were returned from the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast to Ukrainian-controlled territory, the head of the Kherson Oblast Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said. The operation was carried out with the charity Save Ukraine under the presidential Bring Kids Back UA initiative. Among those brought back, several said they had been subjected to militarization and intimidation in occupation schools.
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Russian airstrike hits two apartment buildings in Sloviansk, entrance of five-storey block destroyed
On 11 October at around 09:45, Russian forces struck Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast with an airstrike, hitting two multi-storey residential buildings and completely destroying one entrance of a five-storey block, according to city officials and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Casualty figures evolved during the day: an initial count of four wounded rose to seven, and a later report cited ten wounded and one killed. Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a war crimes investigation into the strike, which used three FAB-250 aerial bombs.
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Russian aerial bomb strike on Kharkiv's Nemyshliansky district kills one woman
On 11 October, Russian forces struck the private sector of Kharkiv's Nemyshliansky district with guided aerial bombs (KABs), hitting a car service station and nearby houses. A woman pulled from the rubble of a damaged house died from her injuries, and the number of injured rose through the day to at least nine or ten, including a 7-year-old boy. Two private houses were completely destroyed.
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Russian drone strikes on Kharkiv hit medical facility, injure five
On 10 October, Russian forces attacked multiple districts of Kharkiv with drones, hitting a medical facility in the Slobidskyi district and triggering a multi-floor fire. The strike injured five people, including a State Emergency Service rescuer hurt during firefighting. A second drone strike hit the Kholodnohirskyi district the same day.
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Nord Stream sabotage trial: Kuznetsov's defense to cite two military commanders as witnesses
The defense of Ukrainian national Serhii Kuznetsov, who is standing trial in Hamburg for the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, plans to present written sworn testimony from two of his military commanders, including a figure described as the likely organizer of the entire operation. Kuznetsov himself will not testify; his lawyers argue that as a servicemember he is not authorized to disclose details of his activities. He denies involvement in the sabotage, and Ukraine officially rejects the accusations against him.
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Russian guided-bomb strikes on Zaporizhzhia kill one, injure 23 and damage residential blocks
On the morning of 9 October 2026, Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia with guided aerial bombs (KABs) between 04:50 and 05:59, killing one man and injuring at least 23 people. The strikes damaged 24 multi-storey residential buildings, an extracurricular education facility, vehicles and the office of the humanitarian mission "Proliska." Ukrainian authorities opened a war-crime investigation under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
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Russia seeks extradition of ICC President Tomoko Akane from the Netherlands
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has formally requested that the Netherlands extradite International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane, and sent similar requests to other countries for eight additional ICC figures, including former Prosecutor Karim Khan. The move is the latest escalation in Russia's confrontation with the ICC following its March 2023 arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the deportation of Ukrainian children, and comes alongside US sanctions on the court.
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Russian strike on passenger buses in Kramatorsk kills dozens
Russian forces struck two passenger buses in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, on the morning of 8 October, killing at least 12 people in initial reports and as many as 33 in later updates. Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadym Filashkin reported a revised toll of 30 dead and 18 wounded during the day, with figures still subject to clarification. The attack triggered a suspension of public transport in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, evacuation appeals, an official war-crime investigation, and condemnation from the European Commission and Switzerland.
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Russian drone strikes hit Kyiv and three districts of Kyiv Oblast, killing at least four
On the morning of 8 October, Russian forces attacked Kyiv and three districts of Kyiv Oblast with strike drones, including reactive Shahed-type UAVs. A drone hit a four-storey shop building in the Solomianskyi district, where three people were later confirmed killed. By the end of the day, the death toll in Kyiv had risen to four and the number of injured to nineteen, with thirteen hospitalised. Three districts of Kyiv Oblast were also struck, injuring three residents. Emergency power outages were introduced across Kyiv and parts of the region, and water pressure dropped on the capital's right bank.
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Russia launches massive combined missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight on October 6–7, hitting Kyiv and multiple oblasts
Russia launched a large-scale combined missile and drone strike on Ukraine overnight on October 6–7, deploying ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, and more than 130 strike drones. Main strike directions were Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Ukrainian air defense said it shot down or suppressed 161 aerial targets by 09:00 on October 7. Multiple civilians were killed across several cities, including the destruction of a residential building in Pryluky, Chernihiv Oblast. President Zelensky, who had warned the previous day based on intelligence that Russia was preparing a massive strike, described it as one of the "most vile" and said energy infrastructure was a key target.