According to a U.N.-mandated investigating panel, Russia has perpetrated several war crimes in Ukraine, including deliberate deaths and torture. In other instances, children have been made to watch their loved ones be raped while others have been detained next to dead corpses.
The Independent International Commission of Investigation on Ukraine outlined the alleged atrocities, including the deportation of children, in a report and said that some of the actions may have been crimes against humanity.
Reporters learned about these claims often in Moscow, according to Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
She continued by saying if the authors of such reports favored objectivity “then we are prepared to analyze individual incidents, respond to inquiries, and provide information, data, and facts. But, there is little purpose in replying to these reports if they are slanted or just reflect one point of view.”
In Ukraine, Russia denies committing crimes against humanity or assaulting people.
The report is released as the International Criminal Court in The Hague prepares to demand the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly removing children from Ukraine and attacking civilian infrastructure, based on more than 500 interviews, satellite images, and visits to detention facilities and graves.
It said that Russian soldiers attacked Ukraine “indiscriminately and disproportionately,” and it demanded that those responsible be held accountable.
“The continuing armed conflict in Ukraine has had terrible impacts at numerous levels,” commission head Erik Mse said during a news conference. It is terrible to see human casualties and the widespread disdain for civilian lives.
According to the assessment, at least 13 rounds of strikes by Russia against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October, together with its use of torture, “may amount to crimes against humanity.”
Using data from the Ukrainian government, it concluded that around 16,000 children had been forcibly moved and deported from Ukraine. Russia disputes the accusation and claims that its citizens left Ukraine freely.
The investigation said that other kids were made to see their loved ones being raped or, in one case, held in a school basement with the remains of the dead.
Prisoners in Russian detention institutions were treated to electric shocks with a military phone – a treatment known as a “call to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin” – or hanged from the ceiling in a “parrot posture”, the study stated.
The 18-page report of the panel will be sent to the Geneva Human Rights Council on Monday. Nations present in the council, the only international organization made up of governments, seek to broaden and enhance the commission’s remit.
Investigations by the council sometimes result in cases being brought before international tribunals. The panel said that it is putting up a list of potential offenders that would be sent to U.N. officials.
When asked whether Russia’s actions would constitute genocide as Ukraine claims, Mse said that it had not yet discovered such proof but would keep looking.
Ukraine has argued that the commission is crucial to ensuring that Russia will be held responsible. Ukraine has asked for the establishment of a special tribunal to charge Russia’s political and military leadership with aggression over the invasion.
The panel found sufficient evidence to draw the conclusion that the invasion of Ukraine qualified as an act of aggression.
According to the study, Ukrainian troops also engaged in a “limited number of breaches,” including as what seemed to be indiscriminate assaults and the torturing of prisoners of war. The Ukrainian president could not be reached for comment right away.
