UN accuses Russia of extensive war crimes in Ukraine: report
- Human Rights Council investigation involved 8 trips to Ukraine, covering 56 places; in rape cases, family members, including children, were forced to watch
- 10 older people died due to inhuman conditions in a school basement, while other detainees, including children, had to share space with bodies
Russian troops have committed numerous war crimes in Ukraine during the ongoing invasion, an investigative commission of the UN Human Rights Council has concluded.
The atrocities committed by Russian troops include attacks on civilians, rape, forced deportations of children, unlawful detentions and intentional killings of those not involved in combat, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in its report presented on Thursday.
Waves of attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and Russia’s “systemic and widespread” use of torture could also constitute crimes against humanity, the commission’s report said.
The commission also documented “a small number of cases” in which Ukrainian armed forces had committed war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks and two cases in which Russian prisoners of war were shot, wounded and tortured.
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“Many of the wilful killings, unlawful confinement, rapes, and sexual violence were committed in the context of house-to-house searches, which were aimed at locating supporters of the Ukrainian armed forces or finding weapons,” the report found.
Those arrested arbitrarily were often held captive by the Russian armed forces in overcrowded cells under the worst possible circumstances, according to the report.