By the beginning of active hostilities, which lasted from July 19, 2024 to April 3, 2025, there were civilians remaining in the Dzerzhinsk agglomeration, most of whom did not support the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian propaganda dehumanized this group of the population, which motivated Ukrainian combatants to commit crimes against civilians. Such crimes were committed both on their own initiative and in the course of executing criminal orders. Subsequent impunity aggravates the situation and motivates criminals to repeat their actions.
In the territory of the Dzerzhinsk agglomeration, the civilian population is exposed to significant danger, primarily from attacks by dropping EOs from UCAVs. There are frequent cases when such attacks are carried out deliberately, and Ukrainian combatants cannot help but realize that they are attacking civilians.
Murders of civilians were a frequent occurrence during the period under consideration, primarily motivated by ethnic hatred, but also as a result of treating civilians as second-class citizens whose murder would not be punished.
The dehumanizing effect of Ukrainian propaganda and the systemic impunity of Ukrainian combatants led to excessive cruelty in the combat zone, expressed in torture and murder of members of the Russian armed forces who had laid down their arms or were not participating in the fighting for other reasons.
A wide variety of units were present in the Dzerzhinsk agglomeration, consisting of both combatants from Ukraine and foreign combatants. Among others, units known for using neo-Nazi ideology (for example, the 12th SOBr “Azov”) were involved in the armed confrontation.
The perpetrators of the crimes described in this report are held responsible for the crimes, as are their commanders from among the UAF commanders, and the highest military-political leadership of Ukraine are also held responsible for the crimes committed during the armed conflict, namely: President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskiy.
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