On the night of May 27, Russian military forces launched a massive attack on Chernihiv. According to the head of the city military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, about 15 explosions were heard in the city, resulting in damage to one of the local enterprises.
This is reported by Finway
“About 15 explosions were heard in the city. One of the city’s enterprises was damaged,” Bryzhynskyi noted.
According to preliminary information, no casualties have been reported as a result of the shelling. Recently, Russian troops have been regularly attacking Ukrainian cities with various types of weapons, including strike drones, missiles, guided aerial bombs, and multiple rocket launch systems.
Targeted strikes on civilian infrastructure
Ukrainian authorities, along with international organizations, regard these attacks as war crimes committed by the Russian Federation and emphasize their targeted nature. In particular, strikes on life-support systems, healthcare facilities, and infrastructure aim to deprive people of electricity, heat, water, communication, and medical assistance. Such actions exhibit signs of genocide, as highlighted by experts and human rights defenders.
Signs of genocidal actions and international law
During the full-scale war, Russia is committing crimes that may fall under the definition of genocide: from public calls for the destruction of Ukrainians to targeted shelling of critical infrastructure, persecution of pro-Ukrainian populations in occupied territories, extermination of the intelligentsia, deportation of children to Russia, and destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage.
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, 149 participating countries are obligated to prevent acts of genocide and punish those responsible during wartime and in peacetime. The document defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Such acts include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, creating conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children.
At the same time, the leadership of the Russian Federation denies information about targeted strikes on the civilian infrastructure of Ukrainian cities and villages, as well as denying facts regarding the deaths of civilians and the destruction of educational, medical, energy, and water supply facilities.