DISINFO: Russia does not attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Russia does not attack civilian infrastructure. There is ample evidence of that. All the damage to civilian infrastructure in Ukraine is related to the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime, which has been deliberately placing heavy weapons and air defence systems in residential areas for months.
RESPONSE
A recurring disinformation narrative claiming that Russian troops do not target civilian objects during Moscow’s war of aggression in Ukraine with the aim of deflecting attention away from Russia's atrocities and attacks against civilian targets.
There is rich evidence that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, such as the shelling of hospitals, churches, shopping malls, killing civilians, raping, as well as using imprecise weapons.
Human rights organisations and the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, document that the invasion of Ukraine was carried out through indiscriminate attacks and strikes on civilian objects. The latest casualty figures as of 19 December 2022 from the UN mission are 17,595 civilian casualties in the country: 6,826 killed and 10,769 injured.
There is plenty of evidence of attacks on civilian targets: attacks on cultural properties; attacks on hospitals and medical care facilities; Mariupol theatre airstrike; Mariupol hospital airstrike; mass shelling of residential areas; bombing of Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Odesa, Vynnitsia, Kremenchuk etc. Russian troops killed and tortured hundreds of civilians in the town of Bucha and Izium. Similar atrocities have been discovered in many other cities where Russian forces were in control.
The European Union is supporting the International Criminal Court in the ongoing investigations into war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
See other cases in our database: Accusations about Russian military war crimes are unacceptable: a lot of fakes on this topic; The Russian military does not strike civilian infrastructure; West has turned a blind eye to the genocide in Ukraine.
Read more about the EU response and support for Ukraine.