Conflicts & War

UN says Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine

Geneva, Sep 23 (EFE).- The United Nations said on Friday that it had gathered evidence that proved Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine.

“Based on the evidence gathered by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine,” chairman of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, Erik Møse, told a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“We were struck by the large number of executions in the areas we have visited,” Møse said, adding that the “independent and impartial” commission had visited the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy areas.

Møse added that while the commission had investigated executions in 16 different localities, it had received “credible allegations of many more” such killings in different places.

“Common elements of such crimes include the prior detention of the victims as well as

visible signs of execution on bodies such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot bullets to the heads and slit throats,” the commission chairman said.

Russian troops also committed sexual violence crimes against people from the ages of four to 82, the commission found.

“There are cases where relatives were forced to witness the crime,” Møse said.

Some witnesses told the inquiry that after being detained, they were brought to Russia where they were kept in detention centers and suffered “beatings, electoral shocks and forced nudity”.

“We are concerned by the suffering that the armed conflict has imposed on the civilian population,” Møse said, adding that the recent discovery of another mass grave near the city of Izyum in eastern Ukraine illustrated the “gravity” of the situation.

The Kremlin has dismissed claims by Ukraine that Russian troops committed war crimes in Izyum and said it was a “lie”. EFE

abc/mp/ch

Related Articles

Back to top button