Multiple towns saw drone and artillery strikes that killed and injured civilians, while firefighters fought several blazes across the region.
During the day, April 11, the Dnipropetrovsk region endured massive attacks by Russian forces: the region was hit by more than sixty drone and artillery strikes, according to regional head Oleksandr Hanza in the evening.
Nikopol was struck by an FPV drone strike: a 67-year-old truck driver was killed. According to the State Emergency Service, after the explosion a fire broke out, which firefighters promptly extinguished; during the day there were two more fires on other trucks.
In the city of Marhanets, drones hit the residential sector: a 64-year-old woman was injured; on a private plot two outbuildings caught fire, and the fire was extinguished. Rescue workers and State Emergency Service units worked at the scene.
Hanza also reported that the strikes damaged a residential building and a car in Kryvorizkyi District.
Nature of the Attacks and International Assessment
The Ukrainian governments and a number of international organizations view these shellings as war crimes by the Russian Federation and emphasize the deliberate nature of the attacks.
Destroyed life-support systems and health-care facilities are seen as a threat to the population that could meet the criteria of genocidal acts – destroying or seriously harming people’s essential needs within the context of armed conflict.
Legal scholars, genocide experts and human rights organizations point to a number of signs of genocidal-like actions, including public declarations of intent to destroy a particular group, public calls for destruction, deliberate attacks on infrastructure of vital services, persecution of opposition views and other forms of repression, including forced displacement and destruction of cultural objects.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948, obliges participants to prevent genocide and punish for it, both during war and in peacetime.
In the text of the Genocide Convention, genocide is defined as acts with the intention to completely or partially destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The signs include destroying members of the group or causing them serious bodily harm; deliberately creating living conditions that contribute to the destruction of the group; forced transfer or deportation of children, and public incitement to such actions. Russia denies targeted strikes against civilian infrastructure, but human rights defenders and lawyers indicate the need for independent investigations and accountability for violations of international law.
The position of the Russian leadership regarding the army’s actions remains under discussion; human rights advocates reiterate calls for thorough investigations and accountability for violations of international law.
The situation requires the international community and Ukrainian authorities to actively monitor and conduct independent investigations to establish facts and ensure accountability for human rights and international law violations.