The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the presentation by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Seventh Interim Report on reported violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in Ukraine during the Russian war of aggression.
The document records information about alleged violations, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Russian Federation based on witness accounts collected by two monitoring missions conducted by ODIHR in Ukraine during the first half of 2025.
The report emphasized that the Russian authorities continued to commit violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), namely indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes of densely populated areas of Ukraine, which led to a doubling of civilian casualties compared to the same period in 2024. In addition, the Russian Federation continued to prosecute and convict civilians on trumped-up charges after prolonged arbitrary detention. For the first time, ODIHR was able to record the exact locations where sexual violence was reportedly perpetrated.
The evidences obtained by ODIHR confirmed previously documented facts, including the categories of persons subjected to arbitrary arrest, as well as previous findings of widespread and systematic use of torture by the Russian Federation against detained Ukrainian civilians and POWs.
ODIHR experts noted that the imposition of the Russian curriculum in schools in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine continued. In addition, military-patriotic education for school-aged children and pressure to join youth militias reportedly increased.
One of the key elements of the report was the documentation of the use of judicial measures and deportations to suppress dissent by civilians in temporarily occupied by Russia territories of Ukraine, confirming the findings outlined in previous Interim Reports. ODIHR received testimony on trials of Ukrainian civilians and POWs by the Russian authorities on trumped-up charges of terrorism, murder, espionage, sabotage, cruel treatment of POWs or civilians and the intentional destruction of or damage to property. In 2025, ODIHR gained information about a far greater number of trials against Ukrainian civilians and POWs than previously during the armed conflict.
We emphasize the need for an immediate and unconditional implenetation by the Russian Federation of the recommendations, outlined in the Seventh Interim Report of the ODIHR OSCE.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine appreciates the contribution and the role of ODIHR in bringing Russia to international legal accountability for its crimes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that the evidences of Russia's crimes documented by ODIHR require urgent response of the international community, in particular by increasing sanction pressure on Moscow and providing all necessary weapons for Ukraine to protect civilians.