Ukraine will release a “Book of Torturers” next week, a publication that will document the war crimes committed by Russian soldiers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday.
Zelensky said the publication would name specific soldiers and commanders responsible for war crimes against Ukrainian citizens. He said the creation of the book had been underway for “some time” and that the database will be part of the process of holding the perpetrators of some 13,000 alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine since the invasion accountable.
“Next week, a special ‘Book of Torturers’ is planned to be launched — an information system that collects confirmed data on war criminals and criminals from the Russian army,” Zelensky said in his nightly address.
“These are specific facts about specific people who are guilty of specific violent crimes against Ukrainians. And such a ‘Book of Torturers’ is one of the foundations of the responsibility of not only the direct perpetrators of war crimes — soldiers of the occupying army, but also their commanders. Those who gave orders. Those who made possible everything they did in Ukraine,” he added.
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The Ukrainian president cited Bucha and Mariupol as being among the cities particularly affected by alleged Russian war crimes.
In Bucha, hundreds of dead civilians and evidence of mass graves were found after occupying Russian forces fled the region. In Mariupol, now under Russian control, Zelensky has said that he believes “tens of thousands” of civilians have been killed since the Feb. 24 invasion.
Zelensky vowed on Tuesday, as he has several times over the course of the war, to bring perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine to justice.
“I have repeatedly stressed that they will all be held accountable. And we are approaching this step by step,” Zelensky said.
Last month, the first Russian soldier tried for war crimes in Ukraine was sentenced to life in prison by a Ukrainian court for the murder of an unarmed 62-year-old Ukrainian man.
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Two other Russian soldiers were sentenced last month to 11 1/2 years in prison by a Ukrainian court for “violating the laws of war.” They were accused of firing rockets at “objects of civil and critical infrastructure, including private homes” in Kharkiv.
Zelensky concluded his speech by saying, “Everyone will be brought to justice.”
