Russia accused of using hunger as a weapon of war in Ukraine

CNN — A group of international human rights lawyers has accused Russia of intentionally starving the civilians of Mariupol as a method of warfare during its 85-day siege of the Ukrainian city in early 2022.

A 76-page dossier published Thursday by the Starvation Mobile Justice Team of the human rights organization Global Rights Compliance looks in detail at the siege, which it described as “hell on earth” for the port city’s residents, through the lens of the war crime of starvation as a calculated strategy.

It found that Russian forces “systematically attacked objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population,” while at the same time cutting off evacuation routes and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Ukrainian civilians were cut off from water, electricity and gas and forced to drink from puddles, radiators and melted snow.