Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging a brutal campaign designed not just to seize territory but to erase Ukrainian identity through systematic torture and psychological warfare, a human rights campaigner has warned. The assault on Ukraine’s civilians goes beyond conventional warfare, targeting the very spirit and culture of the nation, the new report published by Yahad-In Unum, a Holocaust research and genocide documentation organisation, suggests.

And founder Father Patrick Desbois said Russia was using tactics lifted from the Soviet playbook, well over 30 years since the collapse of the USSR. Since the invasion began in February 2022, Yahad-In Unum has gathered over 500 hours of interviews with survivors and witnesses of Russian war crimes across more than 60 locations in Ukraine. Their investigation reveals a consistent pattern of violence aimed at breaking the Ukrainian national identity, with torture used as a weapon to force prisoners to renounce their nationality and pledge loyalty to Russia.

Father Desbois said: “It’s a deliberate strategy from the Kremlin. They lie, they know they lie, they know that we know that they lie, but they go on lying. It’s a classic Soviet propaganda tactic to mobilise their population for the war effort, deflect criticism, and sacrifice so many of their own young people.”

This denial extends beyond official statements. Russian authorities repeatedly dismiss evidence of war crimes, denying the existence of civilian victims or accusing Ukraine of staging attacks. The strategy mirrors traditional genocide denial seen throughout history, where perpetrators refuse to acknowledge their crimes to avoid accountability.

Father Desbois explained: “The intent behind the campaign of torture and violence against civilians is not only to frighten the Ukrainian population into submission; the goal is to psychologically break the Ukrainian identity of their prisoners so they become loyal to Putin and Russia. Russia’s war is undergirded by the lie that Ukrainians are Russian, and reifying that lie – including via the theft of Ukrainian children – is a key Russian objective.”

The scale of the crimes is staggering. Yahad-In Unum’s report includes testimonies from 105 witnesses or victims of bombings and shellings, 99 witnesses or victims of murder and violence, 88 survivors of torture and hostage-taking, 20 victims of looting and theft, 13 victims of forced deportation or screening, and 9 witnesses of sexual violence.

One chilling testimony from the Kharkiv region illustrates the devastation caused by indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas. Witness 13 recalled: “It was a matter of seconds. And then, it hit more and more. My sister grabs a chair and starts running. My son also took a chair and I followed them. And just in a second… I saw many body parts belonging to my sister and four other men ripped apart. Everything was lying on the ground.” The witness confirmed there were no military targets nearby, only residential buildings and shops.

Another survivor, detained in the Kyiv region, described brutal interrogation tactics used to force false confessions. Witness 158 said: “They asked me questions about my name, profession, military service, my opinion about the war and the number of Russians I killed. They wanted me to say some absurd things like, for instance, that I was a Nazi or that I hated Russia. They wanted me to tell lies and if I was not answering as expected, they would beat me. When they started burning my thumbs and when they kicked me in the neck, I lost consciousness.”

Despite the mounting evidence, international media coverage has largely shifted focus to military developments on the frontlines, with civilian suffering receiving less attention. Father Desbois warned this shift risks normalising atrocities and eroding public will to hold perpetrators accountable.

He said: “The public quickly becomes desensitised to personal suffering, as we repeatedly see for genocide and mass crimes. At the beginning of the war, there was a lot of media attention towards men tortured to death, women raped, and civilians bombed, but those stories have largely faded from the headlines.”

“News about victims raises uncomfortable questions of personal responsibility, whereas the broader approach elides those questions. In that context, it’s easy to forget that ‘Russia’ isn’t bombing ‘Ukraine’; Russian soldiers are killing Ukrainian civilians. To facilitate accountability and justice for victims, it’s vital to recognise that everyone on both sides is an individual with a name and a story.”

Yahad-In Unum applies a rigorous methodology to verify the testimonies it collects, said Father Desbois. He explained: “We double-check the veracity of the testimonies by re-interviewing the same people and by corroborating accounts with witnesses who were confined in the same location. In every interview, we insist on getting detailed information about the location and nature of crime scenes, which helps to check for accuracy. Knowing how people entered or left a building, which floor they were imprisoned on, and exactly what they saw inside all helps us verify their accounts and collect good evidence.”

Drawing parallels with his work investigating the Holocaust by Bullets, Father Desbois highlighted the difference in scale but similarity in pattern: “The Holocaust by Bullets was perpetrated across all ex-Soviet countries. It was a campaign of total extermination that extended from the smallest villages to the biggest cities.

“Putin’s goal is not to murder every Ukrainian, but rather to eradicate Ukrainian nationality and identity via military force and psychological warfare. The war can therefore be considered a cultural genocide, especially considering how Russia has destroyed important Ukrainian cultural sites.”

“The risk of international fatigue was another urgent concern. Father Desbois said: “Every democracy gets tired of hearing about mass crimes, but dictatorships like Russia and North Korea don’t get tired of committing them. Because they have total job security, dictators can afford to enact long-term strategies that extend beyond the attention span of democratically elected leaders – and their publics.”

“Dictators see democratic societies as weak, knowing that sooner or later fatigue set in and public opinion will turn against war, no matter how justified, and seek peace on favourable terms to the dictator.

“That makes our democracies vulnerable to manipulation, especially from leaders like Putin who are veterans of foreign intelligence services. We must stay united and determined, or risk granting dictators propaganda victories that strengthen their position and extend their rule.”

As the war grinds on, Yahad-In Unum continues its mission to give voice to Ukrainian civilians caught in the crossfire and to gather evidence that will be essential in bringing perpetrators to justice. The testimony they collect reminds the world that this is not simply a conflict of armies but a deliberate attack on the very identity of a nation.