Russia’s War in Ukraine: Live Updates
A United Nations panel of experts said its investigation had found evidence that war crimes had been committed during Russia’s war in Ukraine, including cases of rape and torture of children.
« In the cases we investigated, the ages of the victims of sexual and gender-based violence ranged from four to 82, » Erik Møse, chair of the Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine, told the Human Rights Council. United Nations man in Geneva. « The Commission has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured and unlawfully confined. Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons. »
The panel said it identified two incidents of mistreatment of Russian soldiers in Ukrainian captivity.
The three human rights experts from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine traveled to Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, visiting 27 cities and interviewing more than 150 people.
Speaking at the UN Security Council on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed « the increased activity of international justice », calling it « undoubtedly a fictitious work ».
The Commission said « some soldiers of the Russian Federation » were responsible for sexual and gender-based violence.
“These acts constituted different types of rights violations, including sexual violence, acts of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment. There are examples of cases where relatives have been forced to witness crimes,” he added.
Møse also noted that a number of attacks investigated by the panel « were carried out without distinction between civilians and combatants, including cluster munitions attacks and airstrikes on populated areas ».
Commission members “were struck by the large number of executions in the areas we visited,” Møse added.
« Common elements of these crimes include pre-detention of victims as well as visible signs of executions on the bodies, such as hands tied behind their backs, gunshot wounds to the head and slit throats, » he said. -he brings back. “Some of the victims reported that after their initial detention by Russian forces in Ukraine, they were transferred to the Russian Federation and held for weeks in prisons. Interlocutors described beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity, as well as other types of violations in these detention centers. »
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