The Reckoning Project
The Reckoning Project: Ukraine Testifies is an initiative bringing together Ukrainian and international reporters, analysts, and lawyers to pursue meaningful justice and accountability. The Public Interest Journalism Lab co-founded it in March 2022.
Our journalists work alongside lawyers, producing high-quality journalism to ensure the war is not forgotten. At the same time, we collect testimonies that can serve as admissible evidence in war crimes cases.
Our reporting and analysis aim to explain the crimes Russia is committing. We also show that war crimes are not merely consequences of war, but tools used to wage it.
Team
Our team brings together internationally recognised journalists, videographers, lawyers, and analysts who have joined forces to document the historical truth of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
We know how easily justice can be lost, and how devastating that loss can be for lasting peace and historical memory. Disinformation and dictators all too often prevail. Our mission is to ensure this never happens again.
Project Team
Nataliya Gumenyuk
Co-Founder,
Editor
Lyuba Knorozok
Film and Media Producer
Kostiantyn Korobov
Editor For Research
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Anna Tsyhyma
Director and videographer
Researchers and Journalists
Oleh Baturin
Angelina Kariakina
Ganna Mamonova
Svitlana Oslavska
Co-founders and international partners
The international team behind The Reckoning Project played an important role in establishing and developing the initiative. It now operates as a separate organisation under the name The Reckoning Project.
Janine di Giovanni
Executive Director/ CEO
Peter Pomerantsev
Executive Editor
Ibrahim Olabi
Chief Legal Counsel
Raji Abdul Salam
Chief Legal Data Archivist
Testimonies
Our team has learned firsthand that in too many horrifying conflicts, national and international courts have dismissed testimonies collected by journalists due to discrepancies between legal and journalistic modes of investigation.
The Reckoning Project is closing this gap by training journalists and researchers to swiftly record, collect, and conserve witness statements on alleged war crimes according to the methodology that makes them applicable for litigation so the voices of survivors are heard in the courts of law.
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More than 600 witnesses and survivors have shared their testimonies with our team.
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We have submitted most of these testimonies to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Legal work
Propaganda, Impunity, Destruction, and Nothing but Recurrence: Russia's Violations of International Law in Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine
A Report by The Reckoning Project to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence Regarding the Russian Federation
Documentary film “To the Sound of Sirens”
The first to arrive at strike sites are rescuers and psychologists from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Often, they get there before missile and drone attacks have even ended. This puts their lives at risk because of Russia’s tactic of double-tap strikes.
“To the Sound of Sirens” is a documentary about the work of Kyiv’s emergency responders in 2025 and early 2026. It tells stories of shifts during attacks, the loss of colleagues, conversations with the families of victims, and attempts to return, even briefly, to ordinary life between call-outs.
“It is impossible to completely shut yourself off and not feel other people’s pain. I am human too, and I can show emotion. When a woman’s two sons were under the rubble and one of them was pulled out, I could not hold back, I smiled. And I cried with her in the same way when the second one was recovered,” says Anna Yatsenko, a psychologist with the State Emergency Service.
The film was created by the Public Interest Journalism Lab together with hromadske. It was directed by Anna Tsygyma and Ksenia Savoskina.
Documentaries
Sumy region was under Russian occupation for approximately one month.
During that time, Russian forces detained 140 civilians. Twenty-six of them have still not returned home.
Among them are Andrii Okhrimenko and Oleksii Melnyk, who were taken from their homes by Russian forces and are being held in Russian penal colonies without any formal charges.
For four years, their wives and children have been waiting for them to come home. Their stories are told in this video report.
«The Scariest Days of My Life»
In 2023, we published a book featuring reports by journalists of The Reckoning Project, which became a historical document of the first year of the Russian full-scale war against Ukraine. The voices of witnesses and survivors had already shattered Russia's intention to conceal its atrocities once again. The texts in the book transformed tragic memories into evidence that can be used in legal proceedings.
Media
Beyond the scope of using testimonies to secure justice, we create large media projects for renowned Ukrainian and international outlets. Our writers and documentary filmmakers continue working to keep the court of public opinion engaged and ensure that stories of war crime survivors are in the consistent spotlight of global discussions, expediting justice for them.
Authors: Oleh Baturyn
“Condemned to Death”: How People Survive and Die in Oleshky and Hola Prystan, Turned into a Kill Zone
Every road into Oleshky and the surrounding villages has been mined. Mines are scattered through the city streets, and the banks of the Konka and Dnipro rivers, which separate Oleshky from the regional capital, have also been mined. Residents say bodies lie on the ground while the shelling never stops. The article is also available in Ukrainian.
Authors: Ghanna Mamonova, Anna Tsyhyma
How two families have been waiting four years for their civilian husbands to return from Russian captivity
During a month of occupation in the Sumy region, Russian forces took 140 civilians captive. Twenty-six have yet to return. Among them are Andrii Okhrimenko and Oleksii Melnyk, held in Russian penal colonies without charge. Ghanna Mamonova and Anna Tsyhyma tell the stories of the families who have been waiting for them for four years. This material is also available in Ukrainian.
Authors: Angelina Kariakina, Ghanna Mamonova
How Residents of a Ukrainian Village Are Preserving the Memory of a War Crime
The Public Interest Journalism Lab organised a meeting with residents of the village to understand how survivors themselves want these horrific events to be remembered. Our article explores what we learned from this discussion and what might help other communities preserve the memory of war crimes. The article is also available in Ukrainian.
Authors: Oleh Baturin and Kseniia Savoskina
Winter Under Attack in Ukraine: Russia Targets Energy Infrastructure, Civilians and Rescue Workers
As bitter cold grips Ukraine, Russia repeatedly strikes its energy infrastructure, with medics and rescue workers also coming under fire. Families endure power cuts, freezing temperatures and loss, while documented attacks on emergency workers are becoming increasingly frequent. The article is also available in Spanish, French, Italian and Slovak.
Author: Nataliya Gumenyuk
The Ultimate Reality Check
This article was written by Nataliya Gumenyuk during her participation in the international event Helsinki Debate on Europe. The very venue where the Helsinki Accords were signed in 1975, laying the foundation for the OSCE. This article is also available in Finnish.
Author: Svitlana Oslavska
How Russia Destroys Care Homes for the ElReporters documenting Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine: ‘Our work is for the future we can not foresee yet’derly
Amid relentless Russian aggression, Ukrainian journalists risk their lives documenting war crimes—preserving testimonies of survivors, seeking justice, and shaping memory, even as their own lives are forever altered by violence.
Author: Viktoriia Balytska
Rebel to the end: The story of family of underground fighters from Balakliia
On September 8, 2022, Ukraine’s Defense Forces liberated Balakliia in Kharkiv Oblast. The city had been under Russian occupation for six months. In the first days of liberation, locals confirmed the existence of several torture chambers where Russians detained civilians.
Authors: Ghanna Mamonova, Anna Tsygyma
How Children Live in a City Where Air-Raid Sirens Sound for 20 Hours a Day
About the deadliest attack on Sumy, which took place on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025, and claimed the lives of 35 people. The stories of children who survived and, despite what they endured, continue to move toward their dreams — in sports and dance.
Authors: Olena Maksymenko, Angelina Kariakina
How Kyivans survived the “black winter” under Russian bombardment — and are preparing for the next one
How Kyiv fought for heat and electricity under constant Russian shelling — and what is already crucial to preparing for the next winter. The article is also available in Ukrainian,
Authors: Ghanna Mamonova, Anna Tsygyma
How Russia Destroys Care Homes for the Elderly
A Russian air bomb hit a nursing home in Sumy, separating a couple who had been together for 67 years and ruining the wedding of another pair who had just begun their life together. How do they find the strength to rebuild their lives under such circumstances?
Authors: Viktoria Balytska, Kostiantyn Korobov
The Story of Olena and the Ukrainians Living in Territories Occupied by Russia — Those Whom Some Would “Trade for Peace”
For more than two and a half years, the resort town of Kyrylivka on the Azov coast has been under Russian occupation. Formally, Russian laws and regulations are in effect there — tools the occupying authorities use to intimidate and oppress the local population. The article is also available in Estonian.
Authors: Ghanna Mamonova, Anna Tsygyma
How Sumy Is Recovering After the Largest Russian Missile Strike on the City
On April 15, Ghanna Mamonova and Anna Tsygyma visited Sumy to speak with eyewitnesses of the attack and document how the city is recovering from the most powerful missile strike since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The article is also available in Spanish, Korean, Romanian, English, English, English — video, Polish and Russian.
Author: Viktoriya Balytska
“They’d like us to give up and ask to hand over Kherson.” How Russians terrorize civilians with drone attacks
In August and September 2025, Russians attacked the Kherson region with an average of more than 2,500 drones per week. In just the first seven months of this year, 847 civilians were affected by these attacks — 79 of them were killed. The article is also available in Spanish, Romanian, Russian, Italian, Czech, Korean, Slovak and Polish.
Author: Svitlana Oslavska
One Day in the Life of a Ukrainian Prosecutor Investigating Russia’s War Crimes
The Reckoning Project documents and preserves eyewitness testimonies of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. Investigating these crimes amid an ongoing war means working under fire — Ukrainian prosecutors often risk their lives and sometimes become victims of Russian aggression themselves. The article is also available in Spanish.
Author: Ghanna Mamonova
“The Disaster Came at Dawn. I Had Only a Few Hours,” — Says a Ukrainian Man About the Destruction of a Giant Dam
A year ago, a series of powerful explosions destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in southern Ukraine — one of the largest in Europe. Within eight hours, the water flooded more than eighty settlements on both banks of the Dnipro River, trapping over a hundred thousand people. The water level rose by ten meters. The Czech outlet Aktuálně.cz publishes an in-depth report by a Ukrainian journalist on the aftermath of this tragedy. The article is also available in Spanish, German, Polish and Romanian.
Authors: Angelina Kariakina, Ghanna Mamonova
Doctors in Kyiv Shielded Children on Operating Tables from Fragments of a Russian Missile
On July 8, Russia launched 38 missiles of various types across Ukraine, according to Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force. Due to the complexity and scale of the attack, not all of them could be intercepted. The article is also available in Russian, Korean, Polish, Romanian and Spanish.
Author: Kristina Berdynskykh
Stories of captivity and resistance in Kremlin-occupied Ukraine
The Russians turned a Nova Kakhovka police precinct into a place where they held, beat
up, and tortured civilians.The article was also published by our media partners OKO.press (Polish), zdg (Romanian), Aktuálně.cz (Czech)
Author: Svitlana Oslavska
Film: Nataliya Gumenyuk, Angelina Kariakina, Lyuba Knorozok, Yuriy Dunay, Peter Pomerantsev, Andriy Bashtovyi, Andriy Lysetskyi, Anna Tsyhyma
Inside the basement where an entire Ukrainian village spent a harrowing month in captivity
When Russians occupied Yahidne village in Chernihiv Oblast, its residents, including dozens of children and elderly people, were forced into a school basement for nearly a month.
Authors: Anne Applebaum, Nataliya Gumenyuk
Film: Roman Bondarchuk
‘They didn’t understand anything, but just spoiled people’s lives’. How Russian invaders unleashed violence on small-town residents
In the occupied territories, Russia systematically persecutes Ukrainians active in their communities, heads of villages and towns, and local volunteers.
Author: Iryna Lopatina
Film: Nataliya Gumenyuk, Angelina Kariakina, Lyuba Knorozok
‘Dad, you have to come—or we will be adopted’: One Ukrainian family’s harrowing wartime saga
Three children survived the siege of Mariupol, forced relocation, their father’s horrific detainment, and their own exile—to Russia.
Author: Nataliya Gumenyuk
Film: Anna Tsyhyma
How one besieged hospital in Ukraine treated wounded citizens, soldiers, and invading Russian troops
The village of Snihurivka was on the front line between Mykolaiv and the occupied Kherson. Medics of the large district hospital provided assistance to the wounded and were not yet realizing that over the next nine months they would be forced to coexist with the occupiers.
Author: Vira Kuryko-Ahiienko
Film: Oksana Karpovych, Angelina Kariakina, Vadym Ilkov, Lyuba Knorozok
One day under Putin’s unguided bombs. How Russian aircraft attacked residential neighborhoods in Chernihiv
On March 3, 2022, a series of Russian aerial attacks on Chernihiv, a northeastern Ukrainian city near the Russia and Belarus borders, marked one of the first massive airstrikes since the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
Authors: Nataliya Gumenyuk, Olena Nizhelska
Film: Anna Tsyhyma
An inside view of a deadly attack on a Ukrainian rail station
The Russian missile strike on the railway station in Kramatorsk remains one of the bloodiest attacks against Ukrainian civilians since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Author: Janine di Giovanni
Vladimir Putin’s inhumane blueprint to terrorize civilians in Chechnya, Syria—and now Ukraine
Vladimir Putin became the prime minister of Russia in August 1999, then president in March 2000. And in the 24 years since, the list of wars conducted on his watch amounts to a catalog of human misery. That roster of calamity has culminated, of course, in the war that has mobilized Europe against Putin’s war machine—the devastating invasion of Ukraine.
Author: Angelina Kariakina
Three stories of pregnancy and birth in Ukraine
“I was to be a pregnant woman in a country where it seemed a pregnant woman had become a target”. While investigating the Russian attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol, the author discovers that she herself is expecting a child.
Authors: Daria Yanushkevych, Denys Shaposhnikov
‘If only we had known’: Half a year after the rocket attack on Chernihiv, the Torii family spoke about their loss
Returning from church on the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, the Torii family was hit by a rocket attack on the drama theatre in Chernihiv.
Author: Gulliver Cragg
Russian War Crimes in Ukraine: The Quest for Justice
