Reporting
Two U.N. reports document atrocities against civilians in Ukraine.
A United Nations report released on Tuesday documented extensive offenses of international humanitarian laws against civilians during the war in Ukraine, including arbitrary detention and torture.
The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said in the report that while it found violations by both Ukraine and Russia, there were considerably more offenses perpetrated by Russia. There were 864 arbitrary detentions by Russian forces documented, including local officials, humanitarian volunteers, and community leaders like teachers and priests, the report said.
“Russian armed forces, law enforcement and penitentiary authorities engaged in widespread torture and ill-treatment of civilian detainees,” said Matilda Bogner, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, the agency that gathered the accounts of the atrocities.
Among the 178 prisoners on which the U.N. said it obtained reliable details, 91 percent described having been subjected to torture, the report said. The office said 77 civilians were executed while they were imprisoned, and also documented 36 cases of sexual violence against men and women.
The office said Ukrainian forces had arbitrarily detained 75 civilians, and heard credible accounts of torture and ill-treatment of 43 conflict-related prisoners.
In March, the International Criminal Court accused the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, of war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest, saying that he bore individual responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.
Last week, the U.N. Secretary General, António Guterres, included Russia on a “list of shame” of violators of children’s rights for killing and maiming Ukrainian youths during the invasion. The document, addressed to the Security Council, was released on Tuesday, the first time a permanent council member appears in such a report.
The U.N. verified the killing of 477 children in Ukrainian territory last year; 136 were killed by the Russian Armed Forces and proxy groups, 80 by Ukrainian Armed Forces, and 261 by unidentified perpetrators, mostly in airstrikes. An additional 909 children suffered severe injuries, including 518 by the Russian military and proxy groups, 175 by Ukraine, and the remainder by unidentified agents.
Being listed, while an embarrassment to Russia, should not have a practical effect on the country, which still retains the power to veto any resolution or decision in the Security Council.
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed to this report.