Kherson region ranks second in Ukraine by the number of suspicions announced for committing war crimes. During 2025 law enforcement reported 178 such suspicions, the majority of which relate to events in Kherson itself.
This is evidenced by the results of an analysis conducted by the “War and Justice” department of the Media Initiative for Human Rights.
In December 2025 the Media Initiative for Human Rights team analyzed 1027 notices of suspicion of war crimes published on the website of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
By number of suspicions among individual settlements, Kherson ranked first — 82 notices. For comparison, Bucha recorded 49 suspicions, Izium district of Kharkiv region — 32, Kupiansk district — 26.
By regions, the leader is Kyiv region — 224 suspicions. In second place is Kherson region (178), in third — Kharkiv (148).
At the same time analysts emphasize: these figures do not reflect the actual number of crimes. According to researcher Anna Rassamakhina, the figures rather demonstrate the capabilities of the law enforcement system under wartime conditions.
On the still-occupied right-bank part of Kherson region more crimes were committed than in Kherson itself, which was liberated back in 2022. But there are far fewer suspicions regarding the right bank, because there is no access to the crime scenes and witnesses there.
Rassamakhina adds that most of the cases for which a suspicion has already been announced concern so-called contact crimes — when the victim can identify the perpetrator. In contrast, crimes without direct contact, in particular mass shelling or bombings, are much more difficult to investigate.
Recall that recently the Khadzhibeysky District Court of Odesa found in absentia 45-year-old FSB of the Russian Federation officer Yuriy Belyatsky guilty of cruel treatment of the civilian population and of violating the laws and customs of war. The court issued the corresponding verdict on January 6.