The first year of the war in Ukraine was full of atrocities. According to UN investigators, civilians were often mercilessly maltreated by Russian troops. However, those responsible have not yet been named.
According to an investigative commission of the UN Human Rights Council, Russian troops committed numerous war crimes in the Ukraine war. These included intentional killings, attacks on civilians, unlawful detention, rape and forced deportations of children, the report said in Geneva on Thursday. In addition, waves of attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and the use of torture could constitute crimes against humanity.
The Ukrainian armed forces are also to be criticized in some cases. Indiscriminate attacks and two cases of torture of Russian prisoners of war are war crimes, the commission said.
“Many of the premeditated killings, unlawful detentions, rapes and acts of sexual violence were committed in the context of home searches aimed at locating supporters of the Ukrainian armed forces or finding weapons,” the report noted. The people arrested arbitrarily were often held captive by the Russian armed forces in overcrowded cells under the worst possible conditions.
List of suspects – not only from the military
“In one case, ten elderly people died as a result of the inhumane conditions in a school basement, while the other detainees, including children, had to share the same room with the bodies of the deceased,” it said. In the case of rapes, family members, including children, were forced to watch the crime.
The Commission is pushing for the criminals to be prosecuted. A list of those allegedly responsible has been drawn up and is not just limited to the military, said the Norwegian commissioner’s chairman, Erik Møse. Rather, the Commission’s mandate encompasses all levels. “We have made progress in identifying people and, for example, units,” said commissioner Pablo de Greiff. This list will be handed over to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and is not part of the report, it said.
According to its own statements, the commission traveled to Ukraine eight times for the investigations and visited 56 towns and settlements. In addition, graves, places of detention and torture were inspected and photos and satellite images were evaluated. A total of 600 people were interviewed. According to UN figures, more than 8,000 civilians have been killed and more than 13,000 injured since the war began. However, these numbers only reflect part of the real situation, it said.
Source: Stern
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