Why?

For the first time in a war, the attackers are not denying their attacks, but denying the committing of crimes and denying the identities of their victims.
That’s the key challenge that Yahad wants to confront.

The crimes committed by Russian soldiers or units are pervasively denied by Putin, Lavrov, and by the President’s spokesperson. Furthermore, the crimes are denied daily by Russian politicians, so-called experts and journalists in Russia and abroad.

Every time a crime is committed, Russia and its supporters follow a pattern of denial that closely resembles traditional genocide denial. First, the existence of the victims or the objects that were hit is denied. If that doesn’t work, the propaganda pretends military personnel or objects were present at the scene. Lastly, the Russians pretend that the attack was unintentional, and that the real military target was somewhere nearby.

After the Kramatorsk train station attack in April 2022 during which 60 civilians died, the Russian government said that no civilian was present at the train station. We were able to find witnesses who confirmed that the station was full of civilians.

In Kremenchuk in June 2022 when a mall was hit and 21 civilians died, Lavrov said it was empty.
We were able to interview seven employees and customers working that day.
In Dnipropetrovsk in January 2023, after having killed 46 civilians in their apartments, the Russian representatives explained this was a military base.

What we do

Civilian victims have begun to appear as little more than numbers on a page. In the news, Yahad - In Unum decided to investigate the indiscriminate killing and torture of civilians, recording witness testimonies, and documenting facts, giving a voice to and fighting for justice for the suffering victims of this terrible ongoing war.

Meeting with tortured victims brings to light why the Russians carry out such violence against civilians and what their real objectives are. Through torture, the Russians have revealed their real intentions: to turn Ukrainian civilians into Russians.

Yahad – In Unum has been documenting these crimes since the very first days of the invasion.

The aim of our investigations is twofold:

1) to collect evidence of the crimes so that the perpetrators are held accountable, which is a key element in providing justice to the victims.

2) to dismantle Putin’s propaganda: Russia, which calls its actions a “special military operation”, has denied targeting civilians and committing war crimes.
It is crucial to methodically deconstruct the Kremlin’s false narrative and provide evidence of the real motives and the extent and impact of their actions.

Yahad-In Unum's work to date has resulted in:

62 witnesses or victims of bombings and shellings
45 witnesses or victims of murder and violence
23 witnesses or survivors of torture and hostage taking
14 witnesses or victims of looting and theft
10 witnesses or victims of deportation and/or forced screening
2 witnesses of sexual violence