SUMMARY
In the post-1989 period covered by UCDP data, the Government of Russia (formerly Soviet Union) used one-sided violence when it attempted to suppress the independence movements that had emerged at the end of the 1980s in the peripheral Soviet Republics. In particular, Soviet troops committed one-sided violence in the conflict with the self-proclaimed “Republic of Armenia” over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh and in Lithuania and Latvia. In the two Baltic republics, Soviet troops targeted civilians when they seized buildings used by the local press. In this context, they also killed a few pro-independence journalists. Members of the Soviet Army and of the local special task forces (referred to as OMON or Black Berets) were the perpetrators of the one-sided violence. The Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev generally denied having ordered the targeting of civilians. The Government of Russia (Soviet Union) first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1991, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached when Soviet forces killed villagers in the context of “Operation Ring”, an operation purportedly conducted to apprehend rebels fighting over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh in Soviet Azerbaijan.
Russia was involved in widespread killings of civilians during the Chechen Wars, in particular during the brutal siege of the Chechen capital Grozny during late 1999-2000, during the Second Chechen War. The city was largely destroyed during the operation, and thousands of civilians died both as collateral in state-based violence, usually in indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes, and as a result of direct targeted killings by Russian forces.
In the context of the interstate conflict against Ukraine starting in 2022, the Russian government also carried out widespread targeted violence against civilians, as well as causing massive amounts of civilian deaths in indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes as included in the state-based conflict. Some of the worst massacres of civilians were reported from the villages of Bucha and Makariv, north of Kyiv, during their occupation during February-April 1 2022, as part of the Russian offensive towards Kyiv city. Several hundred civilians were killed in summary executions, were tortured to death, or were shot in the street as they tried to leave their homes during harsh shutdowns, which resulted in more deaths from indirect causes as people were unable to access food, water or medical care. Other large massacres have also been reported in Izium in Kharkiv region, as well as in Soledar, near Bakhmut. The scale of civilian suffering under Russian control has generally not been revealed until Ukrainian forces reclaimed these areas, and the number of civilians killed by Russian forces in areas under their occupation is likely to increase as more information becomes available. Russia has been active as a perpetrator of one-sided violence every year since the war started in 2022.
Human rights organizations have accused Russian soldiers of rape, summary executions, torture, and forced deportation in connection to the war in Ukraine, and on 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president Vladimir Putin. According to the prosecutor general's office in Kyiv, by February 2024 more than 126 500 atrocities had been reported since the war started in February 2022. In September 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a field office in Kyiv to strengthen the cooperation between Ukraine and ICC to track Russian war crimes.
During 2024 and 2025, Russia also employed one-sided violence in the Central African Republic and Mali. This violence was mainly perpetrated by the Africa Corps, formerly Wagner, in the context of Russia’s ongoing secondary warring support for their governments (following the absorption of Wagner into the Ministry of Defence after their failed coup in 2023).
