Particle.news
Download on the App Store
67 ARTICLES
·
yesterday

UN Inquiry Finds Russia’s Drone Campaign in Southern Ukraine Is a Crime Against Humanity

Investigators cite extensive testimony alongside verified video evidence to detail a centrally directed effort to terrorize and uproot civilians near the front line.

Artillerymen of the 152nd Separate Jaeger Brigade fire an M114 self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov/File Photo
Image
Relatives, colleagues and friends of two Ukrainian 43-year-old journalists Olena Hubanova, who worked under the pseudonym Alyona Gramova, and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin, who were killed on Thursday, Oct. 23, when a Russian Lancet drone hit their vehicle in Ukraine's Kramatorsk around 20 kilometres from the front line, mourn over their coffins during a funeral service at St. Michael Monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Relatives, colleagues and friends of two Ukrainian 43-year-old journalists Olena Hubanova, who worked under the pseudonym Alyona Gramova, and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin, who were killed on Thursday, Oct. 23, when a Russian Lancet drone hit their vehicle in Ukraine's Kramatorsk around 20 kilometres from the front line, mourn over their coffins during a funeral service at St. Michael Monastery in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Overview

  • The UN commission concludes that Russian forces conducted a year-long, centrally coordinated drone campaign that amounts to the crimes against humanity of murder and forcible transfer, and also documents deportations, transfers, detention and torture in occupied areas.
  • The inquiry details short-range drones tracking individuals and striking homes, humanitarian points, critical energy infrastructure, ambulances and firefighters across more than 300 kilometers in Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv.
  • The findings draw on 226 interviews and hundreds of verified videos; citing local authorities, the report notes more than 200 civilians killed and about 2,000 injured by such drone attacks in the past year.
  • Moscow did not cooperate with the inquiry and denies intentionally targeting civilians, according to the commission’s report to the UN General Assembly.
  • As cross-border strikes expand, Russia says it downed about 100 Ukrainian drones overnight with airport closures and fires reported, while Ukrainian sources say SSU drones hit a Pantsir-S2 air-defense system, two radars and oil depots in occupied Crimea; Ukraine also reports shooting down 93 of 126 Russian drones that targeted its regions.