‘The full death toll may never be known’ Human Rights Watch documents Mariupol’s destruction and calls for war crimes investigations in new report

Human Rights Watch, working with the investigative groups SITU Research and Truth Hounds, has released a major new investigation into the large-scale destruction and potential war crimes committed during Russia’s assault on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in 2022.

In a press release, noting that Russia’s siege left thousands of Mariupol civilians dead and hundreds of thousands trapped without basic services, the report’s authors call for official investigations into senior Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, for “their role in apparent war crimes.” They also say Russia should provide reparations to war crimes victims and their families.

The 224-page report includes detailed accounts of 14 deadly attacks by Russian forces that damaged or destroyed 18 buildings, including two hospitals, a theater, multiple residential buildings, and an aid distribution site. In all of these attacks, the authors “found either no evidence of a Ukrainian military presence in or near the structures hit or only a minor military presence.”

During the months-long assault on the city, which was previously home to more than half a million people, Russian forces “extensively used explosive weapons with wide-area effects” in areas populated by civilians, leading to “devastating impacts” on residents and infrastructure, according to the report.

The agencies used photos, videos, and satellite images of burial sites to estimate that Mariupol saw at least 8,000 excess deaths in the first year of Russia’s siege and occupation. They also noted that the total number of people killed as a result of the assault may be “significantly higher” as some bodies may be in makeshift graves or under rubble and some graves contain multiple bodies.

In addition to identifying specific Russian military units and Russian-affiliated formations involved in the assault, the report names 10 individuals who it says may be criminally liable for war crimes in Mariupol.

As occupying Russian forces have begun building “a new city in Russia’s image” where Mariupol once stood, they have also cleared away evidence at “hundreds of potential crime scenes,” the authors write. They continue:

A video accompanying the report notes that because Russia has erased so much physical evidence from the assault already, “the full death toll may never be known.”