A detailed analysis recently submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleges that Russia employed a “deliberate pattern” of starvation tactics during the 85-day siege of Mariupol, Ukraine, in early 2022, constituting a war crime.
The core findings are encapsulated in a dossier prepared by Global Rights Compliance in collaboration with the Ukrainian government.
This report contends that Russian authorities intentionally sought to inflict mass casualties and suffering on civilians.
Estimates indicate that approximately 22,000 individuals perished during the siege and subsequent capture of Mariupol at the onset of the war in Ukraine.
Within days of the encirclement, civilians faced harsh conditions with no access to water, gas, or electricity, as temperatures dropped below minus 10C.
Catriona Murdoch, a partner at Global Rights Compliance, stated that the research aimed to uncover a broader pattern of deliberate deprivation of essential supplies by Russian forces.
“What we could see is that there were four phases to the Russian assault, starting with attacks on civilian infrastructure, cutting out the supply of electricity, heating, and water.
Then humanitarian evacuations were denied and even attacked, while aid was prevented from getting through,” Murdoch explained.
She detailed the systematic approach: initial strikes on infrastructure, denial and targeting of humanitarian efforts, attacks on remaining critical facilities, and strategic assaults to obliterate or seize any remaining infrastructure.
This phased operation, Murdoch argued, highlighted a calculated strategy to seize Mariupol without regard for its civilian population, which was around 450,000 before the invasion on February 24, 2022.
The dossier asserts that an estimated 90% of healthcare facilities and residential buildings in Mariupol were damaged or destroyed during the siege. Moreover, food distribution centers and humanitarian evacuation routes were bombed.
The document implicates senior Russian leadership in these actions.
“Vladimir Putin is culpable,” Murdoch stated, “and echelons of the Russian military leadership,” although specific commanders were not named.
The ICC can consider third-party submissions, though it does not always take action on them.
Starvation and the deprivation of essential amenities are recognized as war crimes under international law, but prosecutions in this area are rare.
Last month, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza—a claim Israel denies.
Khan remarked, “Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”
Similar accusations were made against three Hamas leaders related to the conflict that began on October 7.
Murdoch noted that Khan’s requests for arrest warrants in the Gaza case, which focus on starvation as a war crime, have brought significant attention to this issue within the legal community.
“What it showed is where the ICC’s thinking is,” she commented.
Initially, the lawyers faced challenges in compiling the war crimes dossier for Mariupol due to the difficulties of gathering evidence amid the ongoing Russian occupation and intense combat.
However, they developed an innovative method using an algorithm to map destruction from satellite imagery and corroborate it with assessments from explosives experts, identifying Russian attacks.
