ARLINGTON, Va. – Russian forces are purposefully striking civilian infrastructure as part of a military strategy, a senior U.S. military official said during a status update on Ukraine this week.
“We assess that Russia has deliberately struck civilian infrastructure and nonmilitary targets, with the purpose of needlessly harming civilians and attempting to instill terror among the Ukrainian population elsewhere on the battlefield,” said the official.
Speaking to reporters on background, the official said Russia’s indiscriminate attacks on nonmilitary objectives using missiles and Iranian drones, particularly in the Kharkiv region, have not yet yielded any significant gains.
The attacks are, however, depriving some civilians of critical infrastructure, including electricity and water.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, is currently witnessing the recent bombardment firsthand in Ukraine.
She said Russia’s targeting of critical infrastructure is a deliberate tactic. In just three months, her organization documented 271 episodes of civilian infrastructure bombardment.
According to Matviichuk, a 2022 Nobel Laureate, Russia’s recent civilian bombardment follows years of unchecked attacks on other nations.
“It’s a result of total impunity, which Russia enjoyed for decades. Russia committed war crimes in Chechnya, in Moldova, in Syria, in Mali, in Libya, in Georgia, in other countries of the world, and they have never been punished for that,” Matviichuk said.
Although President Joe Biden has previously accused Russia of war crimes, the top military official stopped short of using the same language.
When asked about the senior military official’s statement, Stephen Rapp, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, said: “If those conditions are met, that is the very definition of war crimes. Intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure, civilian life, etc., is a war crime.”
Speaking on a panel hosted by the Syria Ukraine Network, a resource-sharing coalition linking Syrians with experiences under Russian bombardment to Ukrainians, Rapp said the past two weeks of Russian attacks violate international law.
“Given the pattern that we’ve seen in the last two weeks, it’s a case that proves itself,” he said.
However, retired Army Col. Yevgeny Vindman, a former Pentagon whistleblower also on the panel, said the Department of Defense might have a reason for not calling the indiscriminate attacks “war crimes.”
Vindman, who alerted officials to a 2019 call former President Donald Trump made asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open a corruption investigation into then-candidate Biden, said military officials have a different role than officials in the White House.
“It is the call of a different body – (the) Department of State’s or some other entity, to say ‘based on the findings we’ve gathered… we find that these are war crimes and therefore we’re going to indict,’” he said.
Still, Vindman added that through his work with the State Department’s Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, an organization dedicated to supporting the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s war crimes prosecution efforts, he has seen Russia targeting civilians firsthand.
“I’ve seen the acceleration of indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv but also targeted attacks on infrastructure… dams, power generation facilities, basic life support, water treatment facilities,” he said.
Before the recent spate of Russian bombing, Vindman said the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group had 33,000 open war crimes cases in Ukraine.
Vindman said over 30% of power generation in Ukraine so far has been destroyed by bombardment, leading to concerns of a second large wave of refugees leaving the country as the winter sets in.
Daniel Rebar, an American volunteer medic in Ukraine, said the official’s statement about the Russians targeting civilian installations came as no surprise.
His unit, the Hospitallers, composed of Ukrainians and international volunteers, recently observed Russian forces hitting civilian targets while deployed to Soledar, Ukraine.
Rebar described nonstop shelling.
Soledar, a city in the Donetsk region, is currently seeing heavy fighting as Ukrainian forces advance into the previously Russian-held territory.
“I’m not sure what role an evacuated school or a salt refinery have in a war – it seems these places were bombed only to hurt the people,” Rebar said in a telephone interview with Capital News Service while on a break from duties.
“The point is to try to break the will,” he said. “The point is to make the Ukrainian people stop the fight. It’s had the opposite effect.”