Ukrainian human rights advocates have tracked at least 600 public calls for war crimes by Russian media personalities and identified 173 potential suspects, reported Iryna Sedoa, investigator and researcher at the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG), during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine on 5 November.
According to Iryna Sedova, her team focused on statements from Russia’s state-owned TV channels and large Telegram platforms to show that the rhetoric was being promoted systemically and with state funding. The collected statements were sorted into 22 recurring “arguments” from narratives about “Nazis” to this year’s shift towards accusing Ukrainians of “terrorism”.
At least 170 recorded calls for strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure, made by about 50 media figures, constituted a separate group.
“We see a pattern: mass strikes on infrastructure are preceded by calls to ‘bomb it’ and followed by a wave of statements to justify them,” Sedova said.
Anna Mykytenko, a lawyer specialising in international criminal and international humanitarian law, pointed out that not all “wartime propaganda” is criminally punishable under international law, so the human rights advocates are working to prove complicity: incitement and aiding and abetting crimes already under investigation, including attacks on civilians and civilian objects.
Part of the collected material was included in the communication submitted to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office regarding three suspects.
The collection and systematisation of the large body of data was accelerated with the help of AI-based analytical tools and the archive of Russian media broadcasts (the War of Words project).
“The more evidence we collect, the more chances we have to see them in jail,” Sedova stressed.
Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a resolution approving an address to the UN, EU, and NATO institutions, parliamentary assemblies and leading international journalistic organisations calling for increased political and diplomatic pressure, and sanctions on Russia due to its systematic crimes against journalists and media workers.
