‘War crimes’ committed in Ukraine: UN investigators
TORTURE, SEXUAL VIOLENCE
He highlighted that a number of attacks the team had investigated “had been carried out without distinguishing between civilians and combatants”, including attacks with cluster munitions in populated areas.
The team, he said, had been especially “struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited”, and the frequent “visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats”.
Mose said the commission was currently investigating such deaths in 16 towns and settlements, and had received credible allegations regarding many more cases which it would seek to document.
The investigators had also received “consistent accounts of ill-treatment and torture, which were carried out during unlawful confinement”.
Some of the victims had told the investigators they were transferred to Russia and held for weeks in prisons. Others had “disappeared” following such transfers.
“Interlocutors described beatings, electric shocks, and forced nudity, as well as other types of violations in such detention facilities,” Mose said.
The commission chief said the investigators had also “processed two incidents of ill-treatment against Russian Federation soldiers by Ukrainian forces”, adding that “while few in numbers, such cases continue to be the subject of our attention”.
The team had also documented cases of sexual and gender-based violence, Mose said, in some cases establishing that Russian soldiers were the perpetrators.
“There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes,” he said.
“In the cases we have investigated, the age of victims of sexual and gendered-based violence ranged from four to 82 years.”
The commission had documented a wide range of crimes against children, he said, including children who were “raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined”.
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