More than eight million people fled Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, and a similar number were internally displaced. In all, more than one-third of Ukraine’s population was displaced by the conflict. Russia also forcibly relocated up to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, to Russian territory. In March 2023 the International Criminal Court concluded that Russia’s mass kidnapping campaign constituted a war crime.
Russia’s destruction of Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River in June 2023 is also an example of how Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian infrastructure to inflict suffering on Ukraine’s population: some 240 square miles (620 square km) of territory were flooded, scores of people died, and dozens of towns were inundated, with up to 1 million people left without drinking water.