The horror in my house – Russian occupied territories in Ukraine

This documentary reveals the deepest human abysses, which are still unknown to many, but which we must not deny.

Introduction

“There is an old rule:
Wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, it belongs to us.” So said the president of the world’s largest country, Vladimir Putin, who has been charged with war crimes, on camera on 20 June 2025.
And what does it look like where Russian soldiers set foot? When it belongs to “them”? What is the situation in the occupied territories, which have been legitimised by sham referendums since September 2022 and incorporated into Russia? How large are these territories and how many Ukrainians (hereinafter referred to as Ukrainians) still live there?
What is happening there? How are Ukrainians faring in their homeland under Russian rule?

 

More than ‘just’ war could have been one of the many headlines for this documentary, but it could easily have been misunderstood. “More than ‘just’ war” could be interpreted as comparing Russia’s war of aggression since the full-scale invasion in 2022 to the war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Russian-occupied territories “without bombing terror” and classifying the latter as “more” or “worse”. However, this is by no means the intention of this documentary. Rather, it is the case that in the Russian-occupied territories, where there is no continuous Russian bombardment, a clear insight into the fascist dictatorship is revealed, which describes the genocidal Ukraine policy of the Russian Federation.

This is also clear because Putin needs to “re-implement” totalitarian structures in the “newly” occupied territories (a complete definition will follow after the Russian large-scale attack). So while Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is in full swing, the largest Russian infrastructure and Russification programme in the newly occupied territories is also running at full speed. A basic principle of totalitarian systems applies here: any resistance must be nipped in the bud with violence. And the greater the resistance, the more brutal the violence. Under the personal responsibility of its leader Vladimir Putin, Russia is pulling out all the stops in the newly occupied territories in terms of systemic structural and physical violence.

 

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The Russian Federation is clearly violating all international legal acts with extraordinary severity. Nevertheless, all these legal acts are unable to get a grip on the Russian state apparatus and are once again proving to be too fragmented for complex issues and, without executive power, nothing more than paper tigers. This is despite the fact that Russia’s crimes against the state, war crimes and human rights violations are documented in such detail and comprehensively as probably never before in history. In practice, there are hardly any means within existing international institutions to prosecute Russia. For example, Russia, which violates all the rules of the UN Charter, still has veto status in the UN Security Council. Part of the UN’s jurisdiction is the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is responsible for inter-state conflicts and crimes, but unfortunately has no real instruments of action at its disposal.

Another institution is the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, an organ of the Council of Europe, from which Russia “withdrew” shortly after its war of aggression against Ukraine. And Russia has never ratified the Rome Statute, in which a state recognises the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC). Although the ICC brought charges against President Putin as a war criminal in March 2023 for the deportation of 20,000 Ukrainian children and issued an arrest warrant, this too has not yet been enforced.

The Council of Europe’s “special tribunal”, which was agreed with Ukraine in June 2025 and is also to be established in The Hague, is now intended to offer a way out of this fragmented impunity. However, the exact framework has not yet been defined and planned reforms to extend the ICC’s jurisdiction to the crime of aggression have not yet been decided.
The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) therefore appeals to democratic governments worldwide:
  • Provide a solid framework for legal instruments to prosecute Russian war crimes and thus counteract possible impunity in order to protect victims.
  • • Refrain from misusing the Russian-occupied and unilaterally incorporated territories of Ukraine as bargaining chips in peace negotiations.
  • • To secure immediate access for the International Red Cross to all Russian detention centres for captured Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.
  • • To support Ukraine with all possible means, especially now that support from the US appears more than questionable.
  • • To consider withdrawing the Russian Federation’s veto power in the UN Security Council.
  • • Use the full amount (not just the interest income) of the approximately €200 billion in Russian funds frozen under sanctions for Ukrainian reconstruction and victim rehabilitation.
In view of the numerous human rights violations and war crimes, the IGFM also makes the following demands of the Russian Federation:
  • The ISHR calls for the immediate withdrawal of all troops of the Russian Federation and its allies from Ukrainian territory, as well as the immediate cessation of all military attacks on Ukrainian territory. Likewise, all acts of war must be stopped immediately.
  • The IGFM calls for the immediate release of all abducted Ukrainian civilians and an end to the arbitrary repression of Ukrainian minorities, such as the Crimean Tatars, as well as immediate access for the International Red Cross to all Russian detention centres holding Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.
  • the Russian Federation to recognise the right to self-determination and freedom of a free and sovereign Ukrainian state. This right also applies to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Republic of Moldova.

In Ukraine, Russia is committing the most serious crimes against millions of people. Ukrainian territory is being Russified by force and a system of terror is being established. Millions of people continue to face severe systematic oppression, torture and death. According to the IGFM, an expansion of the war or military action by Russia with the aim of annexing further territories, including those belonging to the EU, is not unlikely. Only a decisive and strong Europe can prevent this, the IGFM concludes.