Ukraine has registered more than 190,000 Russia’s war crimes since the invasion, the prosecutor general says. Drones attack a power plant in Russia’s Kostroma region. Moscow is facing a blackout in winter, an analyst says. Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie visits Kherson.
Ukraine has registered more than 190,000 Russia’s war crimes since invasion, prosecutor general says
Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General has registered more than 190,000 war crimes incidents since the start of Russia’s invasion, the office said on Wednesday, elaborating on what Deputy Prosecutor General, Andriy Leshchenko, and Chair of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, Erik Møse, discussed at a meeting a day earlier.
The two spoke of documentation and investigation of Russia’s war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as coordination and information exchange between Ukrainian and international institutions, the statement reads.
The Office of the Prosecutor General shared with the UN commission some of the results of the prosecutors’ work. It has documented more than 190,000 incidents of Russia’s war crimes since the invasion. At least 1,029 Russian soldiers have been charged [with war crimes], 747 indictments have been sent to court, and 206 persons have been convicted.
The scale and systematic nature of Russia’s crimes in Ukraine give grounds to classify them as part of a “deliberate genocidal policy,” Leshchenko said. “What we see is a planned state policy aimed at destruction of the Ukrainian nation. That is why our investigations focus not only on the perpetrators but primarily on the political and military leadership of the aggressor state,” he said, as cited by his office.
Drones attack power plant in Russia’s Kostroma region. Moscow facing blackout in winter, analyst says
Drones attacked a power plant in Volgorechensk in Russia’s Kostroma region, Russian Telegram channel Astra said on Thursday, referring to eyewitness accounts as well as photos and video clips posted to social media.
The drone attack was repelled, the team of the governor of the Kostroma region, Sergey Sitnikov, said on Telegram. “The response services are working on the site to eliminate the consequences [of the attack] on energy sites,” the message reads.
There were no casualties and power supplies were not disrupted, it said.
Eyewitness photos posted to social media by Astra showed a fire billowing over the power plant. The facility has Russia’s third largest capacity, it said.
Overnight on Monday, drones struck power substations in Russia’s Kursk and Volgograd regions.
They also hit a substation in Vladimir and a thermal power plant in Oryol on Wednesday.
A major power outage left part of the Moscow region in darkness on October 31. The incident reportedly followed a drone attack on energy facilities in the area.
Moscow is facing a blackout on New Year’s Eve, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko in a piece republished by The New Voice of Ukraine on Thursday. Drone strikes are set to disrupt the flow of electric energy between the regions and into the capital.
The thermal power plant in Oryol generates power and heat for the region. The substation in Vladimir has one of the largest capacities and is key to the entire system, Kovalenko said.
Power cuts will likely become a reality across Russia and may well include Moscow, he added, invoking a string of damaged substations and power plants around the Russian capital.
Angelina Jolie visits Kherson
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie visited Kherson on Wednesday, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne and local media said. The visit was later explained by the Legacy of War Foundation, which supported her trip to Kherson and nearby Mykolaiv.
“She spent time with medical staff, families and volunteers, who continue their daily lives under the constant presence of drones, the threat of shelling, and landmines that make large areas unsafe to return to,” the organization said in a statement released on Thursday.
Photos showed Jolie in a flak jacket in a basement, and meeting children in a windowless room. The Legacy of War Foundation said she toured medical and educational facilities that had been relocated underground to escape constant Russian attacks. “Angelina spent time witnessing this work — a reminder of both the human cost of conflict and the resilience of those who continue to endure it,” the statement reads.
Jolie publicly supported Ukraine after the full-scale invasion. She previously came to Lviv in the spring of 2022 to meet the children affected by a Russian missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station. She also met people displaced by the war at the Lviv railway station. While on the visit, she was forced to proceed to shelter with her team and other people after an air raid alert was declared.
