The human rights organization Human Rights Watch estimated the number of civilians killed during the fighting in Mariupol at at least 8,000 people.
Human Rights Watch has published the results of a major investigation into the consequences of the siege and assault on Mariupol by Russian forces in the first months of the war.
The investigation was conducted for almost two years from the beginning of the war, jointly with the Ukrainian human rights group Truth Hounds and with the participation of the architectural and forensic group SITU Research, which uses architectural modeling methods to reconstruct crime scenes (it previously used such methods to model the sites of the shootings in Bucha and the shelling of the train station in Kramatorsk in April 2022).
The 215-page report is based on the testimonies of 240 people, mostly displaced residents, as well as an analysis of dozens of satellite images and more than 850 photos and videos.
Among the findings of Human Rights Watch:
1. The fighting in the city has killed at least 8,000 people in the city. This is a conservative estimate. And it is based on an analysis of the expansion of five cemeteries in and around the city. From March 2022 to February 2023, at least 10,000 people were buried there (some graves could have contained more than one person, and not all those buried in spontaneous graves (in the courtyards of houses, for example) during the siege were later reburied, so this is a minimum estimate). According to HRW, the deaths of 8,000 of them are directly related to the war - either killed during shelling, or died due to the lack of clean water and medical care in the following months.
It should be noted that Ukrainian sources called much higher figures for the dead. The Mariupol City Hall spoke of over 20 thousand dead. And People's Deputy Serhiy Taruta - about 60 thousand. At the same time, it was emphasized that these are only preliminary estimates and it is not yet possible to determine the exact figures.
2. Out of the pre-war population of 540 thousand people, by mid-May 2022, about 400 thousand residents had fled Mariupol.
3. Researchers have analyzed in detail the locations of the most notorious strikes, in particular the Drama Theater and the maternity ward at Hospital No. 3. In most cases, no signs of a Ukrainian military presence near them were found (as often claimed by the Russian authorities), or this presence was so limited that the Russian strikes were clearly disproportionate.
4. Human Rights Watch has identified 17 Russian and pro-Russian groups operating in Mariupol and their commanders, and lists Russian officials who bear command responsibility for their actions. The list is headed by President Vladimir Putin, followed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and several other lower-ranking generals. Interestingly, General Mykhailo Mizintsev, whom Ukrainian authorities had previously accused of commanding operations in Mariupol, is not among them.
5. Among the individuals who are not part of the military chain of command but who bear, as Human Rights Watch believes, command responsibility for war crimes in Mariupol, are two Chechen leaders – Ramzan Kadyrov and Adam Delimkhanov – and the head of the “DPR” Denis Pushilin.
