Russian Federation

An attempt to physically eliminate the leader of the democratic opposition V. Yushchenko at the height of the election campaign by dioxin poisoning: in late December 2004 "a patient presented with TCDD poisoning; the levels in his blood serum (108000 pg/g lipid weight) were more than 50 000-fold greater than those in the general population"^[1]. The poisoning led to severe disfigurement of the candidate's face.

The conduct of an aggressive information campaign in favor of "their" candidate with the direct participation of the head of the Russian state: live on three Ukrainian television channels two weeks before the vote, praise was voiced for the candidate's government - "V. Yanukovych's government achieved more: they managed to fill this growth with good quality. That is, Ukraine's economy is developing in a diversified way"^[2]. In parallel, opponents were demonized with accusations of nationalism and pro-fascist views.

The instigation of the threat of splitting the country in response to the protests: at the congress in Sievierodonetsk on November 28, 2004, Regions faction leader R. Bohatyriova gave a direct promise of a separatist referendum - "we will not go to it with you, we will hold a referendum on the creation of a South-Eastern state (ovation, applause)"^[3]. The presence of Russian officials lent this Moscow's sanction: the mayor of Moscow Yu. Luzhkov reminded the hall from the rostrum that "our President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was the first to congratulate Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych on his victory"^[3].

Direct energy blackmail and the cut-off of gas supplies at the height of winter: on January 1, 2006 - "at 10.00am Moscow time on January 1, 2006, Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine"^[4]; on January 1, 2009 - "Russian exports to Ukraine were cut off on 1 January," after which exports to the EU were "drastically reduced on 6 January and cut completely from 7 January," and in the worst-affected Balkan countries a humanitarian emergency ensued, with "parts of the populations unable to heat their homes"^[5].

The imposition of corrupt gas-supply schemes through intermediary companies: Moscow "used a series of intermediary trading companies (Itera from 1998, Eural Trans Gas from 2003, Rosukrenergo (RUE) from 2005) to transport, and sometimes to supply, the gas to Ukraine," a practice that "was long criticized in European government circles and by corporate governance bodies (where there was concern about their opacity)"^[5]. RUE's co-owner Dmytro Firtash told the US ambassador in December 2008 outright that "He acknowledged ties to Russian organized crime figure Seymon Mogilevich, stating he needed Mogilevich's approval to get into business in the first place"^[6].

An attempt to strike a deal with the US leader over Kyiv's head in order to block Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration under the threat of its dismemberment: Ukraine's accession to NATO would create "a field of conflict for you and us, long-term confrontation," while Moscow, relying on anti-NATO forces, "would be working on stripping NATO of the possibility of enlarging. Russia would be creating problems there all the time"^[7]. As retold by Kommersant's source from the summit itself: "You understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state! What is Ukraine? Part of its territory is Eastern Europe, and part - a considerable part - was gifted by us!" - with a transparent hint "that Russia could begin the severance of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine"^[8].

The deliberate injection of false historical narratives into the international arena: Ukraine, according to the Russian leader, "is not a nation built in a natural manner" and "an artificial country created back in Soviet times," and its territories were supposedly gifts - "In the 1920s and 1930s Ukraine obtained territory from Russia -- that's the eastern part of the country. In 1956, the Crimean peninsula was transferred to Ukraine"^[7]. From this the thesis of its possible disintegration was derived: "the country could just split apart"^[7].

An attempt to legalize the marginalization of the state language in the regions: the law "On the Principles of State Language Policy" (the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law) allowed record-keeping to be transferred to "regional languages," effectively entrenching the dominance of Russian in the Russified regions^[9].

The use of economic blackmail and promises of a loan together with a gas discount to coerce V. Yanukovych into derailing the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU: on December 17, 2013, a reduction of the gas price "to 268.5 dollars per thousand cubic meters" (instead of 410) was announced, along with the fact that "Ukraine, under the bilateral agreements, will receive 15 billion dollars from the Russian National Welfare Fund, selling Moscow its government securities for that amount." Putin stressed: "We consider this a temporary solution, bearing in mind that long-term, long-lasting agreements must and will be reached"^[10].

The use of regular troops without insignia to establish control over the peninsula. A year later V. Putin admitted it on his call-in show of 17 April 2014: "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood. They acted very correctly, but… decisively and professionally"^[11]. Ukrainian garrisons on the peninsula were blockaded and disarmed, as Putin himself admitted: "and the way the Ukrainian units were disarmed - all of this was done so swiftly that it seemed it had been prepared for an incredibly long time"^[11].

The official denial of Russian troops' participation during the operation – and Putin's later admission (call-in show, 17 April 2014) that the denial was a lie: "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood"^[11]. In the same broadcast an interlocutor congratulated him on having "honestly said that the 'little green men' are our peaceful military"^[11].

The installation of a controlled administration under military cover: the decisions of the Crimean parliament were taken in conditions where "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood"^[11]. The UN General Assembly declared the ensuing referendum void and confirmed that it "was not authorized by Ukraine"^[12]. OHCHR recorded the "election" scene itself: overnight into 27 February "armed groups without insignia took over the buildings of the local government and parliament," and "on 27 February, members of the Parliament of Crimea, in the presence of gunmen, dismissed the local Government and elected Sergey Aksenov as the Head of Crimea"^[13].

The manufacturing of an appearance of mass pro-Russian mobilization on the peninsula: behind the "self-defense forces," in whose name the operation was conducted, stood Russian troops, as Putin admitted on 17 April 2014: "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood"^[12]. Rally and "volunteer" crowds supplied the picture of a popular impulse whose legal significance the UN rejected^[11].

The legal formalization of the territory's severance: the treaty on "accession" was signed on March 18, 2014, and the law ratifying it was "Adopted by the State Duma on March 20, 2014, approved by the Federation Council on March 21, 2014"^[14].

The seizure of Sloviansk by an armed group that had crossed the border, and the formation of the separatist "DNR"/"LNR": the detachment's commander openly admitted that "in practice it was our detachment that set in motion the flywheel of the war that is still going on," and that "it was I, after all, who pulled the trigger of the war"^[15]. In parallel, "groups of armed men unlawfully carried out a well-organized and coordinated seizure of public buildings and police and security service offices"^[16]. The "republic's" leadership was from the outset dispatched from Moscow: "Alexander Boroday - the first prime minister of the DNR, who in 2014 handed over his powers to Alexander Zakharchenko," a Muscovite raised "in an intelligentsia Moscow family"^[17].

A massive campaign of fabricating fakes to dehumanize Ukrainians: on state television it was claimed that "Ukrainian armed forces herded city residents to the central square and publicly executed a small boy and his mother," yet "there is no evidence to support Pyshniak's claim," and the residents of Sloviansk who were interviewed did not confirm the story^[18]. The same method produced the fabricated "death of a 10-year-old girl" in the Petrovskyi district of Donetsk (March 2015): BBC correspondents on the ground established that no such girl had ever existed^[19]. In parallel ran an operation to conceal responsibility for the destruction of flight MH17: the Russian Ministry of Defense "made a series of self-contradictory claims blaming Ukraine, rather than Russia or Russian-led separatists, for the Boeing 777's shoot down," while a deputy defense minister publicly repeated "a fabricated claim that originated on Twitter of how a Spanish air traffic controller named Carlos saw two Ukrainian fighter jets near MH17"^[20].

The use of a hacker group linked to the security services to compromise Ukrainian artillerymen's software: "the filename 'Попр-Д30.apk' was linked to a legitimate application which was initially developed domestically within Ukraine by an officer of the 55th Artillery Brigade named Yaroslav Sherstuk," and "in-depth reverse engineering revealed the APK contained an Android variant of X-Agent" - an implant whose exclusive operator is FANCY BEAR^[21]. The same toolkit was used in cyberattacks on the Ukrainian power grid in the winters of 2015 and 2016^[22][23].

The overt crossing of the state border by regular Russian troops in the summer and autumn of 2014 to save the separatists from defeat: the "DNR" commander admitted that the decisive role was played by Russian servicemen who came "on leave" - "it was mostly 'vacationers' who advanced on Mariupol. When they left, both the front line and the opportunities became precarious"^[15]. The offensive resulted in heavy losses for the Ukrainian army near Ilovaisk and Debaltseve. The presence of regular troops continued into 2015: the GRU men captured near Shchastia were "soldiers of the 3rd Separate Guards Special Purpose Brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who arrived on the territory of Ukraine on March 26 and were quartered in Luhansk"^[24].

Mass unlawful detentions and abductions of civilians in the occupied territories: "armed groups continued to commit abductions, to subject people to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment," and "people were abducted for ransom, for forced labor, and for exchange for fighters captured by the Ukrainian authorities"^[16].

The systematic use of torture and physical violence against civilians for a pro-Ukrainian stance: the UN recorded that "armed groups continued to commit abductions, to subject people to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment, and to commit other grave human rights violations"^[16]. Abducted Automaidan activists were held in a basement where they were "allegedly beaten several times, with their hands bound," and their hair was cut off in reprisal^[25].

The physical elimination of legitimate representatives of local government who resisted the occupation: "the mutilated body of Volodomyr Rybak, a member of the 'Batkivshchyna' party and deputy of the Municipal Council of Horlivka (Donetsk region), was found near the village of Raihorodok," and "Rybak was abducted on April 17 by pro-Russians, following a pro-Ukrainian gathering in Horlivka. He was then tortured and murdered"^[25].

Engagement in combat operations of Russian neo-Nazi groups (such as the "Rusich" sabotage and reconnaissance group under the command of A. Milchakov), whose ringleaders openly called for unmotivated sadistic violence against civilians ("Slaughter the homeless, the puppies, and the children!")^[26].

Targeted cyberattacks by Russian security services on distribution substations of the Ukrainian power grid in the winters of 2015 and 2016, aimed at causing mass power outages for the civilian population^[22][23].

An attempted armed seizure of power in the spring of 2014 by storming regional administrations: the UN recorded that already "in mid-April 2014" "groups of armed men unlawfully carried out a well-organized and coordinated seizure of public buildings and police and security service offices in towns and villages of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," and "in order to retain control of the seized areas these groups erected barricades and checkpoints"^[16]. In Kharkiv the coup was quickly suppressed.

The instigation of armed clashes in Odesa on May 2, 2014: the UN records the violence committed "in Odesa on 2 May 2014 during clashes between supporters of unity and supporters of the federalization of Ukraine, as a result of which 48 people died, mostly supporters of the country's federalization," and notes that "no one has yet been held to account"^[16]. The culmination was the fire in the Trade Union Building where activists had taken refuge: the UN monitoring mission listed among the key uninvestigated questions "what caused the fire in the Trade Union building" and "who are the perpetrators of the killings"^[27].

The exploitation of the Odesa tragedy to build a state propaganda myth and invert the roles: the actual picture, per the UN, is clashes "between supporters of unity and supporters of the federalization of Ukraine, as a result of which 48 people died," while the investigation remains incomplete and "no one has yet been held to account"^[16]. The tragedy was used as moral justification for further aggression - by the same device as the "crucified boy" fake, for which "there is no evidence to support Pyshniak's claim"^[18].

The publication of the manifesto "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" (July 2021), constructing a pseudo-historical myth: "Russians and Ukrainians are one people, a single whole," while modern borders are declared the result of the fact that "the Bolsheviks' actions in severing from Russia its historical territories are not considered a criminal act"^[28]. The same article describes how Lenin personally "persuaded" the leaders of the Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih republic "to act within Soviet Ukraine," and how the Central Committee resolved "to create at the congress 'one government for all of Ukraine'"^[28]. On the eve of the invasion the thesis was taken to its limit: in his address of February 21, 2022 Putin declared that "modern Ukraine was entirely and wholly created by Russia, or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik, communist Russia," and called the country "Ukraine named after Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" - "He is its author and architect"^[29].

The official denial of the Ukrainian nation's right to independent statehood: the article by the head of the Russian state declares outright that "Ukraine's genuine sovereignty is possible precisely in partnership with Russia," while "the wall that has arisen in recent years between Russia and Ukraine" is declared a split of "between parts of what is essentially one historical and spiritual space"^[28].

An article by D. Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, in Kommersant (11 October 2021) marginalizing the Ukrainian leadership: "it is pointless for us to deal with vassals. One must do business with the suzerain"; "at the head of Ukraine stand weak people who strive only to line their own pockets," and negotiations with them are "absolutely pointless"^[30]. In the same text the Ukrainian president was likened to a hypothetical Jew serving in the SS^[30].

Total indoctrination of Russian society with the ideas of the philosopher I. Ilyin (so-called "white fascism") and the transformation of the "Russian World" concept into a state ideology (rashism) that justifies the metropole's cultural superiority and existential right to violence against its neighbors^[26].

The invasion by the regular Russian army and massive missile and air strikes on Ukrainian cities: "On 24 February 2022, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, announced his decision to conduct a 'special military operation' in Ukraine to seek its 'demilitarization and denazification'. On the same day, Russian troops crossed various border points into Ukraine, including through Belarus, and launched attacks by land, air and sea"^[31]. The UN Commission investigated the events of February-March 2022 in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy Provinces^[31].

Deliberate mass killings of people without regard to their ethnic origin, solely on the basis of their Ukrainian citizenship and affiliation with the Ukrainian state^[26].

Total information control and a ban on calling the invasion a war - officially it was declared a "special military operation" whose stated aims were "demilitarization and denazification"^[31]. The informational cover for energy terror rested on the "response" narrative: "There is a lot of noise now about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of the neighboring country. Yes, we are doing this. But who started it?"^[32].

Масштабные операции спецслужб РФ по кибершпионажу, перехвату данных (в том числе через взлом публичных сетей Wi-Fi) и скрытому развертыванию деструктивного ПО против украинских организаций и граждан^[33][34].

Deliberate restoration of old Soviet or imperial names to captured cities and streets (in particular, the renaming of Bakhmut to Artemovsk) in order to erase Ukrainian national memory and visually integrate them into the space of the Russian Federation.

Coercing residents of the occupied territories into taking Russian passports: "the policy of mass conferral of Russian citizenship to residents of occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions exacerbated the coercive environment there," and "those who refused Russian passports were denied access to public services, notably social security, healthcare, and education, and risked unemployment" and "faced a heightened risk of arbitrary detention when crossing checkpoints"^[35].

Artificial alteration of the demographic composition of the population in the occupied territories (for example, in destroyed Mariupol) by incentivizing the relocation of citizens of the Russian Federation and their mass purchase of housing, against the backdrop of squeezing out the indigenous residents.

From April 2022 the Russian occupation administrations marked the seized territories with imperial signs - in stone and on paper. In Kherson oblast more than 110 Lenin monuments had been dismantled before the invasion, with practically none left; after the occupation the invaders erected ten new ones: the first in Henichesk in April 2022 - the first Lenin monument on Ukrainian territory since 2014 - and at the end of that same month a monument was returned to its pedestal by the city council in Nova Kakhovka^[36]. In Mariupol on 5 May 2022 a monument to a woman with a red flag was unveiled, and the ceremony was published in his Telegram channel by Andrei Turchak, secretary of the general council of "United Russia"; the Square of the Warrior-Liberators, named in honor of those who freed the city from the Nazis, was given back its Soviet name of "Lenin Komsomol Square" by the occupiers^[37]. In parallel the occupation administration papered the territory with banners: in Kherson and Nova Kakhovka hung Russian-language billboards reading "Russia is here forever!," "Kherson - forever with Russia," "Kherson is a Russian city," and for them they bought, for twenty cents on a stock-photo site, a picture by the Ukrainian photographer Anna Pasichnyk - her son Yaroslav with a friend in vyshyvankas in a rapeseed field near Kyiv - painting a Russian flag in behind the children's backs^[38]. In Balakliia in Kharkiv oblast the occupiers pasted over a city banner: first they hung "Ukraine and Russia are 'one'" on top of it, then a poster with a tricolor reading "We are one people with Russia!". On 10 September 2022 Ukrainian soldiers tore the tricolor down - and beneath it emerged the lines of Shevchenko that had stood there through the entire occupation: "Fight - and you shall prevail! God is helping you! Truth is with you, glory is with you, and holy freedom!"^[39]. The signs held only until de-occupation: on 11 November 2022, a "Russia is here forever" poster in liberated Bilozerka in the Kherson region was torn down by local residents - the video was published by the Telegram channel "Nikolaevsky Vanek"^[40].