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According to UN experts, children as young as four have been raped and tortured by Putin’s criminals in Ukraine.
The Ukraine Investigative Committee team has been investigating alleged war crimes in Kiev, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.
They cited testimonies from former detainees of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention centers, and expressed serious concern about executions in the four regions.
An unspecified number of Russian soldiers were found to have committed crimes of sexual or gender-based violence — with victims ranging in age from four to 82, Erik Mose, the committee’s chairman, told the Human Rights Council.
He said: “On the basis of the evidence collected by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine.”
Investigators today carry a body bag along several corpses on the forest floor, near Izyum, eastern Ukraine
A worker carries a cross at a funeral ceremony for unidentified people killed in Bucha . district
Erik Mose, the committee chair (pictured today) quoted testimonies from former inmates of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity
During a 10-day trip to Ukraine in June, the team visited Bucha, a town outside of Kiev where Ukrainian authorities found mass graves and bodies strewn in the streets after Russian troops withdrew in late March.
“We were struck by the high number of executions in the areas we visited. The commission is currently investigating such deaths in 16 cities and settlements,” Mos said.
He did not specify who or which party in the war would have committed the murders.
The findings mirror reports from news outlets and others of the destruction, death and despair in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on Feb. 24.
Commissioner Pablo de Greiff told reporters that the team had found “two cases of beatings of soldiers of the Russian Federation by Ukrainian soldiers.
“We have clearly found significantly higher numbers of incidents amounting to war crimes on the part of the Russian Federation.”
A dog walks near destroyed houses in Virnopillia village, Kharkiv . region
The commission’s work could ultimately contribute to the work of International Criminal Court prosecutors who can bring charges for war crimes in Ukraine, although it remains uncertain whether Russia or other alleged perpetrators will ever appear in court.
Anton Korynevych, general ambassador of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, joined envoys from a number of Western countries who spoke out against the war in Moscow in the wake of the commission’s presentation. The Russian delegation boycotted the council meeting.
Korynevych called via video for the creation of a special tribunal that would have jurisdiction “over the crime of aggression against Ukraine” and investigate senior Russian political and military leaders who would be responsible.
He said accountability is crucial for rights violations and atrocities linked to Russia’s “aggression.” But Korynevych also emphasized how the impact of the war has spread around the world, “bringing many countries to the brink of starvation, exacerbating extreme poverty, creating the threat of an unprecedented nuclear catastrophe” and destroying the livelihoods of millions of people. has harmed.
Vladimir Putin’s troops have been accused of committing war crimes against civilians in Ukraine
Commission investigators visited 27 towns and settlements, as well as graves and detention and torture centers; more than 150 victims and witnesses interviewed; and met advocacy groups and government officials, Mose said.
The commission plans to gradually expand its investigation, covering areas such as allegations of filtration camps for people being detained or deported, the forcible transfer of people and allegations of accelerated adoption of children.
“The evidence of Russia’s atrocities is growing more horrific by the day, most recently with the uncovering of mass graves in Izium, where the bodies show signs of torture,” said Michele Taylor, the US ambassador to the law council, referring to a Kharkiv regional city. that Ukrainian troops have recaptured in recent weeks.
Taylor urged the commissioners to “continue to investigate the growing evidence of Russia’s filtration operations, forced deportations and disappearances.”
She cited “countless sources” indicating that Russian authorities questioned, detained and/or forcibly deported 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, and reports that children were deported from Ukraine and placed for adoption in Russian orphanages.
A handful of Russia’s allies took on the defense of Moscow.
Ina Vasileuskaya, Belarus’s deputy permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, said Russia’s invasion was aimed at protecting Russian-speakers in Ukraine.
“Biased discussions in the Human Rights Council in which only Russia is accused are dead,” she said.
Vasileuskaya said her country was not a party to the conflict, although Belarus was one of the places Russian troops gathered before invading Ukraine.