Russian human rights activists conduct first monitoring mission in Ukraine

Last month, Russian human rights activists conducted their first monitoring mission in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. At a press conference in Berlin on February 25, the Human Rights Defense Center Memorial presented its work in Ukraine — the first time a Russian mission has traveled throughout Ukraine to document the carnage and war crimes wrought by their homeland’s army.

The delegation included Memorial co-chair Oleg Orlov (who was freed last summer in a major prisoner exchange between Russia and the West), Natalia Morozova, and Vladimir Malykhin. The Russian human rights activists surveyed Kyiv (including the site of the March 2022 massacre in Bucha), Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Poltava, and Odesa. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group helped organize the trip.

“For the first time, a Russian human rights mission has documented evidence of war crimes committed by its own country’s army. Our colleagues saw firsthand the aftermath of attacks on civilian infrastructure, met people who survived occupation, purges, abductions, torture, and secret prisons, and interviewed former Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Memorial mission members said in Berlin.

“We wanted to contribute to our colleagues’ broader efforts to document new crimes,” Oleg Orlov explained. “Our main goal is to ensure that the perpetrators do not go unpunished,” said Natalia Morozova.

During the trip, the activists spoke with Ukrainians who had undergone Russia’s so-called “filtration” process, where occupation forces register, interrogate, and detain people before transferring them. Vladimir Malykhin noted that the Russian military employed similar tactics during the wars in Chechnya, but the army proved better prepared in Ukraine, bringing lists of former and active military personnel, police officers, volunteers, and even hunters who kept firearms at home, the news agency Dozhd reported.

Oleg Orlov described the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine as “a direct continuation of what human rights activists previously observed in the North Caucasus and Syria.” He added, “This is part of a system formed during previous wars — a continuation of state terror.”

During the press conference, Natalia Morozova also addressed the ongoing U.S.-Russian negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, emphasizing the importance of remembering that “those on the other side of the table have spent years perfecting a system of state terror.” She cautioned against forgetting the war crimes of the past three years and urged holding the perpetrators accountable. “A peace built on impunity will not be lasting. It only encourages further crimes,” she said.

Following the trip, Memorial’s team will prepare a report and share its documented evidence of war crimes with Ukrainian officials. The activists will also assist some of the civilians they met while touring war-torn Ukraine, allocating part of Memorial’s Nobel Committee prize money.

The Russian authorities have not commented on Memorial’s allegations.