Since February 24, 2022, 185,231 criminal proceedings related to war crimes have been registered by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, with 140 new cases filed every single day. Civilian casualties, both injuries and fatalities, have been rising since 2014 and sharply since 2022. Human rights organizations have used a range of innovative approaches to document both visible and invisible atrocities. Yet as the evidence accumulates, global media attention is fading, and the funds dedicated to documenting these crimes are being withdrawn. This is the central paradox: We have never had better tools to see and document what is happening and less political will to act on what we observe.
Visible Atrocities
Russia systematically denies humanitarian access to the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other international organizations to the Ukrainian-occupied territories. Still, human rights organizations have used satellite imagery to expose ongoing atrocities. For instance:
- Human Rights Watch used satellite imagery to identify newly dug trenches in Mariupol’s cemeteries, estimating at least 8,034 excess deaths above peacetime rates in February to March of 2022 alone.
- In Bucha, satellite imagery disproved the official Russian narrative that civilians died after Ukrainian forces arrived.
- In the Olenivka case, 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war died in an explosion inside a Russian-controlled detention facility, with satellite imagery identifying pre-dug graves near the site a few days before—evidence of planned action from the Russian side.
- Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab used satellite imagery as one of the key tools in identifying how many Ukrainian children were deported and where they were placed, as well as evidence that children underwent paramilitary training as part of Russia’s indoctrination campaign.
In parallel, international support enabled the creation of a system to document and preserve evidence of Russian crimes through the International Register of Damages for Ukraine. This system not only collects claims on tangible losses, but also advances the documentation of war crimes and crimes against humanity (including conflict-related sexual violence, torture, and deportation). This victim-centered mechanism ensures that those affected can narrate their harms and have them formally recorded, laying the groundwork for future accountability and reparations.
Invisible Atrocities
While Western actors have focused on the visible atrocities, many still do not grasp the complexity of occupation, where silent atrocities are committed and the long-term erasure of Ukrainian identity unfolds. Civilians in occupied territories are forced to exchange Ukrainian citizenship for Russian citizenship to access basic services, sometimes even water. The Ukrainian language has been removed from schools, history rewritten in curricula, and cultural institutions dismantled. Unfortunately, testimony on these less visible atrocities in occupied areas only becomes available once a person can leave or upon liberation.
My ongoing research through the Beyond Compliance Consortium – including interviews with civilians, members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and international actors – reveals that the profound mental harm from living through occupation and war often exceeds reported physical harm. Ukrainian society urgently needs trauma healing and guarantees of non-recurrence, not the normalization of Russia’s occupation of 20% of its territory. Ukraine is not primarily fighting for land. It is fighting for the Ukrainian citizens living there, under Russian colonial rule.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has also demonstrated how disinformation is increasingly intertwined with waging war and committing atrocities. Studies link Russian disinformation campaigns about evacuation routes to higher civilian casualties. The Ukrainian AI-powered system Osavul tracks disinformation in real time and predicts potential targets. Among many projects, it helped trace the Russian disinformation campaign justifying attacks on hotels in Ukraine and linked it to deliberate strikes on journalists — a strategy of silencing the press. In modern warfare, disinformation is used to prepare the ground for the actual fighting, to justify the attacks, and to obfuscate responsibility for atrocities.
Way Forward
The evidence infrastructure built around Russia’s war – utilizing satellite analysis, open-source intelligence networks, AI-powered disinformation tracking, and digital victim-centered registries – represents a genuine innovation in mass atrocity prevention and response. It must be treated as a public good, not just as another funding-dependent political project. Some of these efforts are now threatened by U.S. aid cuts. European institutions must step in where others have stepped back: fund and institutionalize these tools, set standards for their use in legal proceedings, and ensure that documentation programs cannot be dismantled by short-term political decisions.
At the same time, awareness without action is mourning. Documentation without real future accountability (both individual criminal and economic in terms of reparation is re-traumatization) of civilians and the loss of hope in the effectiveness of such mechanisms in the future. The international community must not abandon the imperative of ensuring there is accountability for the crimes committed in Ukraine. This demands concrete action: full support for International Criminal Court (ICC) proceedings against Russian commanders and leadership, including all States Parties as part of the ICC fulfilling their legal obligations to arrest suspected individuals; advancing the Claims Commission for Ukraine funded by frozen Russian assets; and significantly tightening sanctions against Russia until full compliance with international law. This will be essential to just and sustainable peace and healing for the region.
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About the Author
Khrystyna Kozak is an alumna of the Keough School’s Masters of Global Affairs program and the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) Law School. Kozak has worked for the United Nations and various international NGOs in Ukraine.
Recommended Citation
Kozak, Khrystyna. “Evolving Tools, Eroding Will: Challenges of Confronting Russia’s Atrocities in Ukraine.” Peace Policy: Solutions to Violent Conflict, No. 64, (April 2026). https://doi.org/10.7274/32108533
