Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine: UN probe

Geneva:

Russia has committed crimes against humanity of forced disappearances and torture in his war in Ukraine, concluded an investigation in the United Nations.

The crimes have been perpetuated as part of a systematic and widespread attack on civilians, the UN International International Commission said in Ukraine, in a new report, which will be officially presented next week.

“The Commission concluded that the Russian authorities committed disappearances and forced torture as crimes against humanity,” the report shows.

“Both were perpetuated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population and in accordance with a coordinated state policy,” he added.

The categorical nature of this statement was unusual for UN investigators.

The report said that a large number of civilians were detained in areas that were under Russian control, and many of them were further transferred to detention facilities to occupied Ukraine or Russia.

The Russian authorities “have committed violations and crimes during these prolonged detention. Many victims have disappeared for months and years, and some have died in captivity, ”he said.

The respective authorities have not been able to provide information about the place where the detainees are, he added.

The report said that Russia acted with the intention to remove the missing persons from the “protection of the law”.

The prisoners of war were also victims of torture and forced disappearance, in violation of international humanitarian law, the Commission added.

The investigation said that Russia has “systematically used torture against certain categories of detainees to extract information, constraint and intimidation.”

The most brutal forms were used during interrogations, while Russian authorities have systematically used sexual violence as a form of torture against male prisoners. “

The Commission said he also studied an increasing number of incidents about Russian troops who kill or injure captured or teach Ukrainian soldiers, who are a war crime.

“The testimonies of the soldiers who have left the Russian armed forces indicate that there is a policy of taking prisoners, but of killing them instead,” the report shows.

Russia launched the widespread invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UN Human Rights Council has set the highest level of investigation in March that year to probe the violations and abuses committed during the conflict.

The independent report will be presented before the Council next Tuesday.

(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a union feed.)