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Russo-Ukrainian War: Refugees Recount Abuses

PRZEMYSL, POLAND – As more than 2 million refugees from Ukraine begin to disperse across Europe and beyond, some are bringing with them valuable witness evidence to build a case for war crimes.

Increasingly, those showing up at border crossings are survivors who have fled some of the cities hardest hit by the Russians.

Ihor Diekov, one of many who crossed the Irpin River outside Kyiv on the slippery wooden plank of a makeshift bridge, said: “It was strange, after the Ukrainians blew up a concrete span to slow down their advance. Russia.

He heard gunshots as he crossed and saw dead bodies along the road.

“The Russians have promised to provide a (humanitarian) corridor that they have not complied with. They shot civilians,” he said. “That is absolutely right. I have witnessed it. Everyone was scared.”

Such testimonies will increasingly spread to the world in the coming days as more and more people move along the fragile humanitarian corridors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday said three such corridors are operating from bombed areas. The people left Sumy, in the northeast near the Russian border; suburbs of Kyiv; and Enerhodar, the southern town where the Russians took over a large nuclear plant. In total, about 35,000 people have recovered from the disease, he said.

More evacuations were announced on Thursday as residents desperately sought to leave cities where food, water, medicine and other essentials were running low.

Nationwide, thousands of people are believed to have been killed across Ukraine, both civilians and soldiers, since Russian forces invaded two weeks ago. City officials in the blockaded port city of Mariupol said 1,200 residents had been killed there, including three in a bombing at a children’s hospital. In Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, the prosecutor’s office said 282 residents were killed, including several children.

The United Nations human rights office on Wednesday said it had documented the killing of 516 civilians in Ukraine in the two weeks since the Russian invasion, including 37 children. This is largely due to “the use of explosive weapons with a wide area of ​​impact,” it said. It believes the true number is “significantly higher” and notes that its figure does not include a number of “intensely hostile” areas, including Mariupol.

Some of the newest refugees have witnessed those deaths firsthand. Their testimony will be a key part of efforts to hold Russia accountable for its targeting of civilians and civilian structures such as hospitals and homes.

Prosecutors of the International Criminal Court last week opened a possible investigation into high-ranking officials believed to be responsible for war crimes, after dozens of member states of the court demanded ask him to act. Evidence gathering has begun.

Those who manage to flee fear for those who cannot.

“I was scared,” said Anna Potapola, a mother of two who came to Poland from the city of Dnipro. “When we had to leave Ukraine, my children asked me, ‘Will we survive?’ I am terrified and scared for those left behind.”

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