The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office stated that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed and over 13,500 others injured in punitive operations carried out by the Ukrainian authorities in the Donbas region.

In December 2025, the Russian Prosecutor’s Office approved an indictment against senior Ukrainian military and political leaders, numbering more than 40 individuals. They were charged in absentia under provisions related to genocide in the Russian Criminal Code.

Among those named in the Russian indictment are Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom Valerii Zaluzhnyi, former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

According to the investigation, starting from April 2014, the accused and other Ukrainian officials allegedly issued orders while on Ukrainian territory for forces to use firearms, armored vehicles, combat aircraft, missiles, and artillery against civilians, with the aim—according to the Russian account—of committing genocide against the population of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.