Russia’s foreign minister comes to the United Nations as Moscow faces war crimes accusations

A report commissioned by the United Nations last month found Russian forces in Ukraine committed an array of war crimes, including summary executions, torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians.

The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine details violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in four regions occupied by Russian armed forces. The commission focused its investigations largely in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

In preparing the report, the commission conducted 610 interviews and traveled to 56 cities over eight separate visits. In some cases, the commission found that Ukrainian forces committed war crimes against Russian troops, though those incidents were less frequent.

The commission also inspected sites of destruction, graves, places of detention and torture and examined documents, photographs, satellite imagery and videos.

In one of the most disturbing examples of sexual violence, the commission details an incident involving a pregnant woman:

Rapes were committed at gunpoint, with extreme brutality and with acts of torture, such as beatings and strangling. Perpetrators at times threatened to kill the victim or her family, if she resisted.

In some cases, more than one soldier raped the same victim, or rape of the same victim was committed several times. In one incident, the victim was pregnant and begged, in vain, the soldiers to spare her; she had a miscarriage a few days later.

The group also wrote that spouses and family members, including children, were sometimes forced to watch Russian troops rape their loved ones.

The commission said that the ages of victims of sexual assault ranged from 4 years of age to over 80 years old.

The report also documents Russian forces unlawfully confining Ukrainian civilians in overcrowded makeshift facilities before carrying out interrogation sessions that involved methods of torture:

Cells were overcrowded, with people forced to sleep on the floor or in turns. At times, men, women, and children were held together. Lack of light and ventilation, difficulties to breathe, absence of heating in freezing temperatures were reported. Sanitary conditions were inadequate, with, at times, buckets or a bottle as a toilet and limited or no possibility to wash.

In one case, 10 older people died as a consequence of the inhuman conditions in a school basement, while the other detainees, including children, had to share the same space with the bodies of the deceased.

The commission wrote that some women restricted their water and food intake out of shame to use the toilet in front of other prisoners.

The group added that in several cases, the confinement was prolonged, with the longest instance lasting over nine months.

In the majority of instances, relatives of those taken for detention were not informed and reasons for confinement were not properly communicated by Russian troops.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/24/russia-foreign-minister-lavrov-visits-united-nations.html