As Kyiv brings landmark charges of crimes against humanity with British help, lawyers trying to ensure a fair trial are condemned as collaborators
Tom Watling
August 1, 2026
The Sunday Times
Britain is helping Ukraine to bring a landmark legal case accusing Russia of committing crimes against humanity using drones.
The case, which is being built with British legal support and could reach the courts in the next few months, aims to charge Russian officials with crimes against humanity. The alleged crimes span several frontline regions, including Kherson in southern Ukraine, The Sunday Times can reveal.
It would be the first time that individuals have been accused of crimes against humanity over the alleged systematic use of drones to kill civilians. Ukrainian lawyers involved believe the case documents will be “studied for decades to come”.
Although Ukraine has brought indictments against 912 Russians accusing them of war crimes in recent years, this would be the first case alleging crimes against humanity, which is defined as a deliberate state policy to kill civilians.
The Ukrainian prosecutor-general’s office said its objective was to charge “the highest political and military leadership of the aggressor state by proving the systematic nature of these atrocities”.
The case is highly sensitive and has provoked some controversy in Ukraine. It will be tried in a Ukrainian courtroom with the accused Russians prosecuted in absentia — a rare example of a trial for crimes against humanity taking place while the war is still going on. Ukrainian lawyers will stand in for Russia’s defence team and are being trained to provide as thorough a defence as possible, which has made them subject to abuse by their compatriots. The aim is that the legal documents and evidence gathered can be passed to major prosecutors, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), to help support further convictions.
Sir Howard Morrison, a former British judge at the ICC and the UK’s adviser to the Ukrainian prosecutor-general, said: “If there are successful prosecutions in Ukraine, using sustainable evidence and a proper application of the law, it will spread to other territories.”
A British-Ukrainian legal team at Global Rights Compliance (GRC) has advised prosecutors and reviewed evidence to help the case withstand scrutiny in court.
The UK has committed more than £16.5 million to supporting Ukrainian investigations and prosecutions of Russian war crimes and the crime of aggression. The British government recently tripled its funding for GRC as efforts intensify to establish how Russia might have systematically used drones and missiles against civilians.
The prosecutor-general’s office said the team’s work had “significantly improved” the chances of successful prosecutions.
Crimes against humanity were first prosecuted after the Second World War against Nazi leaders and encompass offences including murder committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against civilians. Under international humanitarian law, it is illegal to target civilians in a war.
Hundreds of civilians are thought to have been killed by Russian drones since the full invasion in 2022. The worst-hit area is the southern region of Kherson, where at least 287 civilians have been killed over the past two years, according to regional prosecutors. Many attacks were filmed by the drones and published on social media, leading to it becoming known as a “human safari”.
The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found last year that Russian forces had systematically attacked civilians in Kherson. Material from the UN investigation has been incorporated into the case.
Russia has always denied targeting civilians, and has declined to co-operate with the UN inquiry.
Wayne Jordash, president of GRC and a prominent international defence lawyer, said Russia’s invasion amounted to “as fundamental a violation of international law as you can imagine”. He said his team was helping the prosecution because “if there is no accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity, then the door gets wider and wider to a world of chaos, and the strong ruling the weak”.
Oleksandr Kukharuk, 35, a lawyer in the prosecutor-general’s department for crimes committed during armed conflict, opened the crimes against humanity investigation last July.
Security around his Kyiv office is extensive: the entrance is fortified with sandbags and guarded by armed soldiers. “This is not one crime, but thousands of crimes within one criminal proceeding,” Kukharuk said. “We are pursuing quality. The case must be built to a standard that leaves neither an independent judge nor society in doubt.”
Kukharuk said a conviction could allow an official to be placed on an international wanted list and, if found, brought to Ukraine to serve the sentence.
Who defends Russia?
The legitimacy of the defence will be essential to a fair trial. Ordinarily, a lawyer would construct a defence according to the client’s instructions. Here, where the defendant is absent, that is impossible.
Oleksandr Baranov, head of the Co-ordination Centre for Free Legal Aid, which is appointing defence lawyers to the case, described representing Russians accused of war crimes in absentia as “very complicated”.
Only about 300 legal-aid lawyers are prepared to defend Russians accused of war crimes, about 3 per cent of the total registered in Ukraine, and they face considerable public hostility. While the prosecutors are lauded, defence lawyers are accused of being collaborators and apologists.
A 2023 survey commissioned by the UN Development Programme found that 48 per cent of Ukrainians believed the state should not ensure a legal defence for Russians accused of war crimes. The proportion rose to 60 per cent in Kyiv.
Baranov recalled a translator in court asking an appointed lawyer: “How can you defend the accused? You’re an enemy of Ukrainians. You cannot be Ukrainian any more.”
Baranov said the lawyers were just doing their jobs. “The nearest comparison is a doctor,” he said. “It’s a profession. It doesn’t matter what your attitude is towards a Russian soldier: if a Russian soldier is wounded, you have to heal him. The same with a defence lawyer. If he is accused, you have to defend him.”
The evidence is expected to include witness testimony, drone remnants, military and intelligence intercepts and open-source material, including footage posted on Telegram, a Russian-owned social media site. “The most difficult part is identifying everything from the unit through its chain of command: its hierarchy, reports, orders and the way information was communicated,” Kukharuk, from the prosecutor-general’s office, said. “This is a complex exercise involving intelligence work as well as searches for open-source information.”
The judges are victims too
Not all Ukrainians are convinced that fair trials are possible during the war. Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor-general, said it would be “very difficult” for Ukraine to conduct an impartial and properly informed trial, a view that has made him deeply unpopular.
“Even with extensive international training programmes, it is still very difficult to speak about complete impartiality,” he said. “Judges, prosecutors and investigators are all living through this war themselves. They are also victims.”
Mamedov led Ukraine’s first crimes against humanity investigation, looking into Russia’s alleged killing and deportation of Crimea’s pro-Ukrainian population, and campaigned for the offence to enter Ukrainian law. Parliament passed legislation in May 2021, but President Zelensky left it unsigned at the time. Mamedov resigned two months later.
Ukraine finally incorporated crimes against humanity into its criminal code in 2024. Yet Mamedov believes it should wait before bringing these cases to court. “It is often necessary for the war — or at least a particular phase of it — to come to an end before the full scale of those crimes can be properly assessed,” he said. “Only then is it possible to evaluate the nature and extent of the criminal policy behind them.”
Bringing cases prematurely, he argued, could undermine trust in Ukraine’s judicial system.
Kukharuk is prepared for this criticism. “We must be ready for scrutiny and ensure that everything is done in accordance with the law,” he said. But he believes that bringing it now is the right thing to do. “I am pleased and proud to be working on the case,” he said. “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
Tom Watling is a freelancer based in Ukraine. I was formerly a foreign affairs reporter at The Independent, covering news across the world with a special focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine. I have spoken on radio segments, including BBC Radio 5 Live and LBC’s Nick Ferrari morning show, about the conflict in Israel/Gaza and the war in Ukraine. I have previously worked for the Daily Express and Daily Mail+, a subscription platform for the newspaper, as well as South London Press, a local outfit reporting on issues in the capital. I began working during the pandemic while undergoing my Newspaper Journalism MA at City, University of London. His work appears in The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Spectator. Appearances on Sky, BBC and TimesRadio. He is Winner of Chalk Circle Short Story Award.