Russia

Russia has committed ‘wide range’ of war crimes in Ukraine, U.N inquiry finds

cde.news desk 16 March 2023, 15:20 · 2 min read

epa09887776 Worker exhumes bodies from the mass grave near the St. Andrew and All Saints Church in Bucha city of Kyiv (Kiev) area, Ukraine, 13 April 2022. Forensic investigators began exhuming a mass grave in Bucha containing more than 410 bodies of civilians, according to Ukrainian officials. The UN Human Rights Council has decided to launch an investigation into the violations committed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament reported. Russian troops entered Ukraine on 24 February resulting in fighting and destruction in the country and triggering a series of severe economic sanctions on Russia by Western countries. EPA-EFE/OLEG PETRASYUK

GENEVA, March 16 (Reuters) – Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine such as wilful killings, torture and the deportation of children, a U.N.-mandated investigative body said in a report published on Thursday.

The report, based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite images and visits to detention sites and graves, comes as the International Criminal Court in The Hague is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said that Russian forces have carried out “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on Ukraine, resorted to torture, killed civilians outside of combat and failed to take measures to safeguard the Ukrainian population.

“Russian authorities have committed numerous violations

of international humanitarian law and violations of international human rights law, in addition to a wide range of war crimes…,” the report said.

The document gave details of torture methods used in Russian detention facilities where victims were subjected to electric shocks with a military phone – a treatment known as a “call to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin” – or hung from the ceiling in a “parrot position”.

Russia denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine.