United Nations investigators have accused Russian authorities of violating basic human rights principles and causing untold suffering to Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians by subjecting them to appalling treatment. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine released its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council on Friday.
The report highlights an escalation in civilian suffering two years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, and attributes the violations to a disregard for basic humanitarian principles and obligations to uphold human rights.
The Commission said it was concerned about the continued use of explosive weapons in civilian areas. It noted that the multiplicity of such attacks confirms a pattern of disregard by Russian forces for possible harm to civilians.
More generally, recent indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces in violation of international humanitarian law had resulted in civilian casualties and the destruction and damage of civilian objects, including protected objects such as hospitals and cultural property. The Commission said Russian forces often failed to take feasible precautions to verify that the targeted objects were not civilian.
"We are concerned at the scale, continuation, and gravity of violations and crimes that the Commission has investigated and the impact on victims and the affected communities," said the Chair of the Commission, Erik Møse, on Friday.
The investigators presented a blistering account of “violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, and corresponding war crimes,” committed by Russia in Ukrainian areas under its control.
At a news briefing in Geneva, Møse said the report focuses on torture against Ukrainian prisoners of war and describes “horrific treatment” of prisoners of war (POWs) in several detention facilities in the Russian Federation.
He said new evidence “strengthens the commission’s previous findings that torture used by Russian authorities in Ukraine and the Russian Federation has been widespread and systematic.”
“Victims’ accounts disclose relentless, brutal treatment inflicting severe pain and suffering during prolonged detention with blatant disregard for human dignity. This has led to long-lasting physical and mental trauma,” he said.
Commission Chair Møse told journalists that the Russian authorities have received the report and have had an opportunity to comment on the draft.
“We have noted with regret that the Russians have not responded to any of the drafts that we have sent them during this reporting period, nor have they done so this time,” he said.
The Commission will officially present the report Monday at a UN Human Rights Council meeting. Russia has the right to respond, but has often boycotted such meetings in the past.
The report covers the period from April 2023 to March 2024. During that period, the commission traveled to Ukraine 16 times, visited 34 settlements in nine provinces and interviewed 816 people.
Møse said that the commission examined credible reports concerning torture in 11 detention facilities, seven in areas under Russian control in Ukraine and four in the Russian Federation.
He said the prisoners of war in the centers were subjected “to beatings, verbal abuse, and electronic devices that were used on body parts,” adding that the picture emerging from the way they were treated over long periods of time “enables us to use the word horrific.”
The report documents incidents of rape and other sexual violence committed against women “in circumstances which also amount to torture.” It also details incidents of torture with “a sexualized dimension” and threats of rape against male prisoners of war, under the control of prison guards.
Vrinda Grover, a commission member, said “there also were incidents of touching of certain body parts of male prisoners, which was considered very humiliating.”
She said the commission found that Russian soldiers raped and sexually assaulted girls and women, ages 15 to 83, usually during house searches “in the presence of family members.”
“These are violations of international human rights, as well as the war crime of rape and sexual violence,” she said.
The report also assesses the grave impact on civilians of the fighting in the three-month siege of Mariupol, which began the day Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
“Residents describe unbearable suffering during relentless shelling and aerial bombardments, which caused large-scale death, injury, and destruction,” said Møse.
Fighting in Mariupol city damaged or destroyed at least 58 medical buildings, according to the data gathered by the Commission.
Møse said people interviewed recalled seeing large numbers of dead bodies on the streets, in the rubble of their houses and in the city's hospitals.
“One woman who fled on foot to a neighboring village called it the road to death, expressing the pervasive feeling of fear,” he said.
According to the Commission, indiscriminate attacks by Russian forces have led to the destruction and damage of civilian objects, including those that are protected under international law – such as hospitals and cultural property.
“In this report, the Commission has documented for the first-time attacks by Russian authorities affecting cultural property and seizure of cultural objects,” noted Grover.
“We have found that in the summer of 2023, the Russian armed forces committed indiscriminate attacks in Odessa city, affecting several buildings and the Transfiguration Cathedral located in the historic center,” she added.
The attacks were, at the time, severely condemned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as violence against cultural heritage of Ukraine that stands in contravention of international conventions on the protection of cultural property and world heritage.
One of the most emotive issues facing the Ukrainian people is Russia’s forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to areas under its control. The Ukrainian government estimates some 20,000 children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia, given Russian citizenship and put up for adoption by Russian families.
The Commission says its investigations found “additional evidence concerning the unlawful transfer of children to areas under Russian control.” In its current report, the commission focuses on the case of a group of 46 Ukrainian children from the Kherson Regional Children’s Home to Crimea, “on orders of Russian authorities, on 21 October 2022.”
Grover said the commission has concluded that the transfer to Crimea “was not temporary and hence amounts to the war crime of unlawful transfer.”
The report also describes some human rights violations committed by the Ukrainian authorities against persons suspected of collaborating with the Russian authorities.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine was established by the Human Rights Council in 2022. It is composed of Erik Møse (Chair), Pablo de Greiff and Vrinda Grover.
February 24 marked two years of Russia's war against Ukraine. While the conflict dates back to 2014, when Russian forces took over Crimea and fostered separatist rebellions in Ukraine's eastern regions, Russia shocked the world in early 2022 by launching a full-scale invasion aimed at toppling the central government in Kyiv.
At least 10,000 civilians have been killed and more than 18,000 injured, while 23,000 people are still recorded missing. Nearly 6.5 million Ukrainians have sought refuge around the world, while some 3.7 million people remain forcibly displaced within the country.
As the war rages, humanitarian conditions inside Ukraine remain dire, with 14.6 million people - some 40 percent of the population - in need of humanitarian and protection assistance.
The human rights and humanitarian situation in Ukraine has rapidly deteriorated since Russia's invasion escalated the eight-year conflict in the east into a full-scale war. The devastation and destruction have been staggering.
The killing and injury of thousands of civilians, including children, the targeting of civilian infrastructure, the disruption of livelihoods and vital services, and prolonged displacement have created a massive humanitarian and protection crisis.
Hostilities are devastating communities in the east, south and north, taking a heavy toll on civilians living close to the front lines. The war is also having a dire impact on the mental health and well-being of children, including the millions who have been forced to flee to safety, whether internally or externally.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises. Violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the course of the ongoing armed attack are widespread. Millions of civilians fear for their lives. People in Ukraine continue to be killed, wounded and deeply traumatized by the violence.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/55/66), released March 15, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiukraine/A-HRC-55-66-auv-EN.docx