Targeting the Innocent: Russia’s Continued Attacks on Ukrainian Civilians
By: Dr. Gregory P. Noone and Kateryna Kyrychenko, PILPG, and Todd Scott, Gargi Talukder, Lindsay Rindskopf, Bailey Higgs, Weixin Yang, and Rene Kathawala, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Introduction
Three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia continues to deliberately target civilians, causing widespread devastation and uncertainty through repeated attacks and indiscriminate bombings. Various human rights agencies, as well as the United Nations, have reported these targeted attacks, tracking the continually rising death toll in Ukraine’s civilian population. Early 2025 brought reports of short-range drone attacks; a weapon that should in theory allow more precision and avoid civilian casualties, but has in practice put “civilians at grave risk.” This blog post discusses the consistent findings of Russia’s “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on civilians in Ukraine, and the international humanitarian law that prohibits them.
Russia’s “Indiscriminate and Disproportionate Attacks” on Civilians in Ukraine
International human rights agencies and news organizations have widely reported Russia’s “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks” in Ukraine. In a March 2023 report, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (the “Commission”) presented evidence that, in addition to a variety of other attacks on civilians, “Russian armed forces have carried out attacks with explosive weapons in populated areas with an apparent disregard for civilian harm and suffering.” The Commission found that Russian forces used weapons, including unguided bombs, long-range anti-ship missiles, cluster munitions, and multiple launch rocket systems, against both military and civilian targets “without distinction.”
The year following Russia’s full-scale invasion spurred consistent reports of these “indiscriminate” attacks committed with “disregard” to the targets (the list below is non-exhaustive and covers attacks only from the first two years of the invasion; it continues to grow as further incidents are documented daily):
28 February-30 April 2022: Twenty-eight “indiscriminate strikes” in Kharkiv.
3 March 2022: Attacks in residential areas of Chernihiv, killing at least 20 people and injuring others.
9 March 2022: Attack on Mariupol Primary and Sanitation Aid Center No. 3.
9 March 2022: Attack on apartment building in Izium, killing at least 44 people.
16 March 2022: Attack on Mariupol’s Drama Theater which killed as many as 600 civilians.
8 April 2022: Attack on Kramatorsk train station, killing 59 people and injuring 92.
27 June 2022: Attack on Kremenchuk shopping mall, killing 21 and injuring dozens of people.
1 July 2022: Attack on residential areas near Odessa, killing at least 21 people.
9 July 2022: Attack on an apartment building in Chasiv Yar, killing at least 15 people.
14 January 2023: Attack on an apartment building in Dnipro, killing 45 people, including six children.
28 April 2023: Attack on the apartment block, killing at least 21 people, including three children.
October 2023: Attack on café and store in Hroza, killing at least 51 people.
December 2023: Aerial attack killing at least 30 civilians and injuring at least 160.
These attacks are still occuring three years later, and the death toll continues to rise as Russia increases its aerial attacks against civilians. In 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (“OHCHR”) issued a report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, identifying “[i]ncreased use of air-dropped bombs with a larger range” as a “significant reason for the rise in civilian casualties” in 2024. The report found that 96% of civilian casualties in 2024 “were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas.”
Hundreds of civilians have already been killed or injured in Ukraine during the first months of 2025, including through the use of short-range drones and missile and munitions attacks targeting residential buildings, a boarding school, and medical facilities. In early 2025, it was not the use of unpredictable weapons, like unguided bombs and cluster munitions, that resulted in the most casualties; it was the use of short-range drones equipped with cameras, which should “allow[] an operator to assess with a higher degree of certainty whether a potential target is a military objective or a civilian person or object.” While the use of short-range drones should, in theory, decrease the risk of civilian casualties, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) reported data “show[ing] a clear and disturbing pattern of short-range drones being used in ways that put civilians at grave risk.” There is evidence suggesting that Russia may be purposely using drones to target civilians in order to terrorize them, and potentially use civilians for target practice in order to perfect the drone operators’ skills. Civilian casualties were higher in January and February 2025 than in the same months last year.
International Humanitarian Law Aims to Protect Civilians from Attack
International Humanitarian Law (IHL - also referred to as the Law of Armed Conflict or LOAC) prohibits attacks (like bombardments or aerial strikes) on civilians and buildings likely to house civilians during armed conflicts.
Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols: The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties that establish international legal standards for belligerent conduct during armed conflict, to which Russia has been a party since 1949. They protect both people who do not participate in the fighting (such as civilians or medics/aid workers) and those who can no longer fight (such as captured or wounded troops). In particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention protects civilians in times of war, including those in occupied territories, from murder, torture, or brutality (Articles 13 and 32), and from indiscriminate destruction of property (Articles 33 and 34).
Additional Protocol I, while not ratified by Russia, provides further illustration of the kind of protection that international law affords to civilians. Specifically, it expands protections for the victims of international armed conflicts, including prohibiting the use of weapons that “cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” (Article 35); the destruction of foods, water, and other materials needed for survival (Article 54); and indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations (Article 51(4)). “Indiscriminate attacks” are defined to include “those which are not directed at a specific military objective” and “those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective” (Article 51(4)(a)-(b)). These protections include the IHL fundamental principle of proportionality which states “an attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” (Article 51(5)(b)).
Additional Protocol I further provides that a party conducting military operations should take “constant care…to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects,” including by “refrain[ing] from deciding to launch any attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof…” (Article 57).
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC): The Rome Statute, which established the ICC, defines war crimes, including intentionally directing attacks against civilian populations or civilian objects, as prosecutable offenses.
The ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. “War crimes” are defined in Article 8 to include: (1) “[i]ntentionally directing attacks against the civilian population”; (2) “[i]ntentionally directing attacks against civilian objects”; (3) “[i]ntentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects”; (4) “[a]ttacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives”; and (5) “[e]mploying weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering”. Article 7 of the Rome Statute defines “crime[s] against humanity,” including murder, “when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” Article 6 defines “genocide” as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Russia signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but did not ratify it, and it withdrew from the Rome Statute altogether in 2016. However, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are all part of customary international law and considered jus cogens, meaning that they are peremptory norms that cannot be violated regardless of whether or not a state is a party to a particular treaty.
Hague Conventions: These conventions, particularly the Hague Convention IV of 1907, set out the laws and customs of war, including the protection of civilian populations and property during conflicts. The Hague Convention states that “the right of belligerents to adopt means of injuring the enemy is not unlimited” (Article 22) and explicitly prohibits “employ[ing] arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering” (Article 23). The Hague Convention also prohibits attacks on certain areas likely to house civilians (Article 25, prohibiting attack on towns, villages, and dwellings) and requires taking “all necessary steps” “to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes” (Article 27).
Russia’s Attacks on Civilians Violate International Humanitarian Law
Russia’s attacks on civilians violate international humanitarian law protections for civilians in times of war. For example, Russia has engaged in repeated “indiscriminate attacks” against civilians in violation of the Geneva Convention. The armed conflict in Ukraine falls under Article 2 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits “indiscriminate attacks” against civilians. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded in its March 2023 report that “a majority” of Russia’s attacks, including the use of weapons like unguided bombs used against civilians, were indiscriminate. The Commission made similar conclusions in its March 2024 report, determining that multiple attacks, including a March 13, 2022, attack on a hospital and the March 9, 2022, air attack on a maternity hospital, were indiscriminate attacks. The Commission has concluded that Russia’s “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks” against civilians are violations of international humanitarian law.
Russia has also failed to take the necessary precautions under Additional Protocol I, Article 57(2) to prevent attacks on civilians. The Commission determined that “Russian armed forces failed to take feasible precautions to verify whether civilians were present” in multiple attacks, including those in residential areas.
Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, schools, and churches, which are all locations that receive special protections under international humanitarian law. See, e.g. Article 27 of the Hague Convention.
Russia has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and potentially genocide. While Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute, other state parties have referred the situation in Ukraine to the ICC, and in March 2022, the ICC Prosecutor announced an open investigation into “any past or present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person from 21 November 2013 onwards.” In its March 2024 report, the Commission determined that “[c]ertain attacks amounted to the war crime of excessive incidental death, injury or damages.” The Commission was unable to determine whether the bombardment of Mariupol constituted a crime against humanity under Article 7(1) of the Rome Statute, but recommended further investigation.
Conclusion
Since its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there is incontrovertible evidence that Russia has committed numerous war crimes by, among other crimes, repeatedly and “indiscriminately” attacking civilians, failing to take sufficient precautions to prevent casualties in violation of international humanitarian law. As Russia adopts new methods of attack, such as the use of short-range drones — which, in theory, should allow for greater precision in distinguishing military from civilian objects — concerns remain about their actual use and impact on civilians. This underscores the ongoing need for vigilant monitoring, thorough investigation, and robust accountability mechanisms.