A report collects the agency’s first verifications of murder, torture and rape and warns that “it will take years to understand the full extent of sexual violence” unleashed in this war
The United Nations has started writing its own diary about the brutality of the war in Ukraine. Investigators have certified at least 300 summary executions of civilians in the first month of war in Russian-occupied areas. This number does not include civilian deaths from fighting, beatings, or medical neglect. Even worse, the report warns that the data may be just the tip of the iceberg of a much more brutal and inhumane reality. In the case of sexual violence, the chilling report of gang rapes, forced nudity in public and threats of sexual violence by Russian, but also to a lesser extent Ukrainian military, the UN emphasizes: “Understanding the full scale of sexual violence in this context can take years.
The war between Ukraine and Russia is also numerical. The figures of victims dance depending on the source. Experts believe that it will be necessary to wait until the end of the conflict to objectively clarify the cost-in-life of the invasion, and despite this, there will still be a significant margin of missing persons. Resident testimonials collected in cities like Bucha or Mariúpol refer to the burial of corpses in mass graves whose location is unknown, the cremation of bodies to remove evidence of war crimes, or fugitives in cases such as the latest Russian bombing of a mall in Kremenchuk mall, where dozens of customers seem to have been consumed by fire. That is, sinister factors that feed a margin of uncertainty. The UN recognizes that the data from these initial verifications will fall short, but they have the merit of confirming that hell exists and is currently devouring Eastern Europe. “Citizens continue to bear the brunt of the hostilities,” Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said during the document’s presentation. Bogner also warns of the “serious deterioration of the human rights situation in the country”, where complaints of ill-treatment or arbitrary detention are taking place.
From the start of the occupation on February 24 to May 15, the United Nations has confirmed the existence of 10,000 civilian casualties, including 4,731 dead. However, he warns that the teams continue to find evidence of crimes and new graves. The death toll has also accelerated in recent weeks as Russia ramped up attacks in Donbas. However, the statistics are lower than estimates by the Kiev government, whose calculations indicate that at least 5,000 people are said to have lost their lives in the tortured Mariúpol alone.
The “brief executions of civilians” reveal that the beginning of the war was a whirlwind of inhumanity, blood and terror. The report lists 300 executions in the first month of the invasion alone. Ukraine sees in this atrocity an intention of the occupier to sow panic with the frustrated aim of hastening the fall of the country. The murders are said to have taken place in more than 30 settlements in the Kiev, Chernigov, Kharkov and Sumy regions. In all, the investigation continues and the international agency believes that the number of executions that took place in those weeks will increase significantly.
In his day, neighbors already gave insightful descriptions of the behavior of some Russian units in their search for “Nazis”, firing at adults who could carry a weapon. A month ago, a New York Times investigation uncovered a video shot in the city of Bucha showing the execution of eight men blindfolded and with their hands behind their necks. It happened on March 4. It was all civilians living a few yards from the wall that the gunmen used to shoot at them. 50 identical cases have been documented in Bucha. “There must be an end to the daily killing of civilians, torture, disappearances and other violations. If hostilities do not stop, the minimum required to fully respect humanitarian law and to be committed to the protection of all civilian women , men and children and those who do not fight,” said Matilda Bogner during the report’s presentation.
But the conflict in the former republic shows that no minimums are possible. The investigations, conducted by an international team in which a group of Spanish forensic experts participate, lead to knowledge of numerous violations of the rules of war. These rules “were repeatedly not respected by the Russian armed forces, and to a lesser extent by the Ukrainian forces”, which “increased the number of civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects”. In other more technical words, the soldiers skipped basic principles for protecting the population such as “discernment” and “precaution”, which would have killed the number of civilians as a result of urban clashes and indiscriminate bombing. The most tragic and well-known example is that of the Mariupol Theater, where Russian missiles killed 300 to 600 civilian refugees in their basement.
The United Nations has determined that the two armies have violated humanitarian law in the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians. There have been complaints of torture, ill-treatment or medical neglect and the agency has confirmed 248 cases of arbitrary arrests of local politicians, activists and journalists that sometimes ended in enforced disappearances attributed to Russian troops and separatist groups in Donetsk and Lugansk. Bad ending: The bodies of six of them were found days later. The UN does not protect Ukrainian militias from such actions and denounces the fact that they have committed a dozen “kidnapping” of civilians suspected of supporting the invading army.
Notaries of terror also do not do well in the war. The United Nations has counted 17 journalists and bloggers killed in the first three months of fighting and warns of “drastic” cuts in freedoms of information and expression. It concludes with a request for justice for all victims in what can be seen as clear support for the intervention of an international war crimes tribunal. “Those responsible must be held accountable and the victims and their families must enjoy their right to redress and truth,” said the head of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission.
Source: La Verdad
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