A report by the United Nations monitoring mission in Ukraine released on Tuesday (June 27) said Russia has detained more than 800 civilians and executed 77 of them since the beginning of the Ukraine war, over a year ago. The report also noted that more than 900 detentions took place in both Ukraine and Russia which included children and elderly people.
What did the report find?
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine presented the findings of its 36-page report based on 70 visits to detention centres, 274 site visits, and more than 1,000 interviews at the official places of detention run by Ukrainian authorities.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva via video link from Uzhhorod, Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, head of the UN mission in Ukraine said, “We documented over 900 cases of arbitrary detention of civilians, including children, and elderly people.”
She added, “The vast majority of these cases were perpetrated by the Russian Federation.” The report addresses the period from the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 last year until May 23 this year.
However, the number could be much higher since Russia did not grant any access to its places of detentions or detainees for the visits or interviews, despite many requests, said the UN official. On the other hand, Ukraine gave UN investigators full access to official places of detention and detainees with one exception.
‘Widespread torture and ill-treatment’ of detainees on both sides
Presenting the findings of the report, the UN mission in Ukraine said Russian forces, law enforcement, and penitentiary authorities have “engaged in widespread torture and ill-treatment of civilian detainees.” Bogner said that over 91 per cent of those civilians detained by Russia told UN investigators that they are been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
“Torture was used to force victims to confess to helping Ukrainian armed forces, compel them to cooperate with the occupying authorities, or intimidate those with pro-Ukrainian views,” said Bogner. According to the report, victims told UN investigators that they were subjected to sexual violence including rape and electric shocks to the genitals.
Furthermore, the UN report also claimed that some other methods of torture included, punching and cutting detainees, strangling, waterboarding, electric shocks, deprivation of water and food, putting sharp objects under fingernails and mock executions.
This was in addition to so-called welcome beatings and random group beatings, said the UN report, citing some conflict-related detainees, as per AFP.
Meanwhile, on the Ukrainian side, “Over half of those arbitrarily detained were subjected to torture or ill-treatment by Ukrainian security forces,” said Bogner, adding that this would happen when “people were being interrogated, usually immediately after arrest.”
‘It is a war crime’: Bogner about Russian executions
“We documented the summary execution of 77 civilians while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation,” said the UN mission in Ukraine. This was in addition to 864 individual cases of arbitrary detention by Russia which included 763 men, 94 women and seven boys, said the UN report.
However, many of them are now said to have amounted to enforced disappearances. Addressing the press conference, she said that the 77 executions attributed to Russia are “a war crime… it’s also a gross violation of international human rights law.”
Bogner also said at least a quarter of the known cases of civilians arbitrarily detained by Moscow, were transferred to other locations within Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine or deported to Russia. While more than half of the civilians have been released some remain “disappeared,” said the UN mission in Ukraine.
What does the UN report say about Ukraine?
According to the UN mission chief in Ukraine, no executions were documented on the Ukrainian side. But they did document 75 individual cases of arbitrary detention of civilians by the Ukrainian forces who were predominantly suspected of conflict-related offences.
The report also noted how changes to Ukraine’s criminal codes had given Kyiv greater discretion to carry out such practices. The UN investigators also found that a significant proportion of the arbitrary detention amounted to enforced disappearances which were carried out predominantly by the Security Service of Ukraine.
(With inputs from agencies)
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