"Putin has confessed to war crimes": Ukraine's General Staff explains step-by-step how Russia violates laws of war

Ukraine's General Staff has stated that Russian leader Vladimir Putin has effectively confessed to war crimes by admitting to missile strikes on civilian targets that killed dozens of people.

Source: Major Dmytro Lykhovii, spokesperson for Ukraine's General Staff, on Facebook; a Ukrainian Armed Forces video

Details: The Ukrainian Armed Forces have analysed Putin's 21 April remarks in which he acknowledged strikes on civilian sites in Sumy, Kryvyi Rih and Odesa Oblast, attempting to justify them by claiming these "locations were being used by the Ukrainian military". The Ukrainian Armed Forces have provided a step-by-step explanation as to why and how Moscow violates international law and humanitarian law.

Facts about Russian missile strikes

Kryvyi Rih. 4 April 2025. The Russian military launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile on a residential area of Kryvyi Rih, near Spivdruzhnosti Street, striking a garden between high-rise buildings, next to a playground and shops. The attack killed 20 people, including 9 children, and injured more than 70.

The Russians falsely claimed that the missile, which carried a high-explosive charge, had targeted the RoseMarine restaurant (formerly known as the Mahellan), where a meeting with NATO officers was allegedly taking place, resulting in the deaths of around 85 soldiers.

This claim is a blatant lie. Video footage from the scene revealed that the missile, which actually contained cluster munitions, struck nearly 100 metres away from the restaurant. The building itself sustained only minor damage, as is clearly shown in photographs.

Surveillance footage taken before the explosion showed no military personnel inside the restaurant, let alone any large meetings. In fact, that day the RoseMarine was hosting the Golden Snitch Beauty Business Forum, organised by the Kryvyi Rih Business Union, to celebrate a birthday.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission reported that Russia's attack on Kryvyi Rih on 4 April was the deadliest single strike in terms of child fatalities.

Sumy. 13 April 2025. Russian forces launched a missile attack on Sumy city centre at around 10:20 on Palm Sunday morning. One Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missile, carrying a high-explosive warhead, struck the conference centre of Sumy State University, partially destroying it. A few minutes later, a second missile, equipped with cluster munitions for large-area destruction, landed 150 metres away. It was the fragments and shrapnel from this missile that caused most of the casualties, killing people in the street and on a passing city bus. Those inside the conference centre were taking shelter at the time.

Overall, 35 people, including 2 children, were killed in the Russian attack on Sumy, while 129 others, including 17 children, were injured.

The Russian propaganda machine has put forward several false versions of the war crime, including claims that the strike had targeted a "meeting of the command staff of the Siversk Operational Tactical Group of the Ukrainian Defence Forces". But these claims are untrue. There were no military meetings or formations at the conference centre. Those attending an awards ceremony organised by local authorities were unharmed. The two soldiers among the dead were accidental targets – they were simply walking down the street, like the civilians.

Odesa Oblast. 19 April 2025. The Russian military launched a missile attack on Odesa Oblast, damaging farms in the region. Firefighters worked to extinguish the fires caused by the strike. Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported the incident and posted photos of the devastation. There were no civilian fatalities or injuries from the attack.

Russia's violations of international humanitarian law

International humanitarian law, particularly the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, along with customary international humanitarian law, establishes clear guidelines for warfare. Lykhovii noted that by attacking Kryvyi Rih, Sumy and other peaceful cities and civilian targets, Russia is violating the principles of distinction and proportionality, as well as the prohibition on the indiscriminate use of weapons, among other breaches.

The principle of distinction

All parties to an armed conflict are obligated to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian facilities and military targets.

Violation of the principle of distinction:

Sumy State University’s conference centre is a civilian building intended for educational and public use, not a military target.

A children's play, The Capricious Princess, by the Sumy Theatre of Children and Youth, had been scheduled for 11:00 in the building's small assembly hall, as shown in the event announcements.

The street was crowded with municipal buses, civilians, and children – clearly not a military target.

Civilian casualties resulting from missile strikes constitute a violation of a fundamental principle of International Humanitarian Law.

The principle of proportionality

It is prohibited to launch an attack if the expected harm to the civilian population would be excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage.

Violation of the principle of proportionality:

Even if there were a hypothetical military target nearby, using cluster munitions in a densely populated urban area is disproportionate.

The deaths of 35 people in Sumy and 20 in Kryvyi Rih – including children – and the hundreds of injuries clearly constitute a violation of this fundamental principle.

Prohibition of indiscriminate use of weapons (Indiscriminate attacks)

Weapons that cannot be aimed with precision or that strike a wide area without selecting specific targets are prohibited. Yet Russia uses missiles equipped with cluster munitions to strike cities.

Such missiles scatter dozens or even hundreds of submunitions over a large area, making their use in urban areas inherently criminal.

The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits their use, and although Russia is not a signatory, customary international law has already established their unacceptability in densely populated areas.

Protection of civilian infrastructure and education

Under Additional Protocol I (Article 52), facilities intended for civilian purposes, such as schools, hospitals and universities, are afforded special protection. The Sumy State University conference centre is part of the educational infrastructure.

The Geneva Safe Schools Declaration also obliges parties to a conflict to refrain from attacking educational facilities.

To summarise, the General Staff spokesperson draws several conclusions:

Moscow cynically targets civilians, but tries to justify its terror by declaring that civilian targets are "military bases", "weapons depots", etc.

Russia's deliberate attacks on Ukrainian cities, which result in civilian deaths and suffering, are war crimes, as evidenced by Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Russia's recent attacks on Kryvyi Rih, Sumy, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities are intended to intimidate Ukrainians and break their morale, and to persuade Ukraine to surrender.

Ukraine is committed to identifying the perpetrators of these crimes and bringing them to justice. Such war crimes are not subject to any statute of limitations, Lykhovii stressed.

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