GENEVA — U.N. human rights experts have accused Russia of waging a war of attrition against Ukraine by pursuing a policy of mass destruction to crush the spirit of the nation.
A report issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, Wednesday says that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, there has been “a dangerous escalation of hostilities,” which has had a huge, injurious impact “on the civilian population.”
U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif, who presented the report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, told the 47- member body that “September, in fact, marked the highest number of civilian casualties since July 2022.”
Most civilian casualties, she said, were caused by “relentless attacks with aerial glide bombs, long-range missiles, and drones that contributed to the killing of some 574 civilians — an increase of 30% over the previous year.”
“Russian bombardment damaged civilian infrastructure and water, heating and transportation services, including four major attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since mid-November,” she said.
The report covers the period from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, 2024. It documents continued and increasing gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of humanitarian law, “including possible war crimes.”
“We are deeply concerned by the impacts on civilians of the increased use of drones and the use of new weapons during the reporting period,” said Al-Nashif.
“Russian armed forces launched some 2,000 long-range drones in November alone, killing scores of people,” she said. “We are also concerned about the potential increased use of anti-personnel landmines, due to the threats they pose to civilians, both now and long into the future.”
The report documents “credible allegations” of executions of Ukrainian military personnel captured by Russian armed forces, noting that “summary executions constitute a war crime.”
The OHCHR has verified the execution of 68 Ukrainian POWs captured by Russian armed forces. The office also has verified the summary executions of 170 civilians since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, in areas controlled by Russian armed forces, including in places of detention.
“Accountability for all of these killings is essential. Instead, there is almost total impunity,” Al-Nashif said.
The 26-page report also documents torture of POWs at the hands of Russian and Ukrainian armed forces, calling it “a violation of international law.”
However, the report says the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war carried out by Russian armed forces is far worse than it is for those captured by Ukrainian military personnel.
It describes the torture of Ukrainian men and women POWs by Russia subjected to severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence and other abuse as “widespread and systematic.”
While Russian prisoners of war held by Ukraine also “were subjected to torture and ill-treatment, from severe beatings to sexual violence and dog attacks,” the report notes the abuse occurred mostly in places of transit before reaching official places of internment.
“The high commissioner’s report lays bare the harrowing reality of Russia’s war against human rights and fundamental freedoms in Ukraine,” said Filipenko Yevheniia, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
“In the dead of winter, Russia has calculated strikes on power grids, water systems and heating infrastructure. They have left millions freezing in their homes, struggling without electricity or clean water,” she said in a statement. “These are not unintended consequences. These are deliberate acts of terror calculated to spread suffering, target the most vulnerable, and shatter the spirit of the nation,” she said.
Russia’s representative at the council sharply criticized what he called “the selective nature and the bias of the U.N.’s pseudo human rights defender in chief” who, he said produced a report that “hypocritically whitewashed the crimes” and numerous human rights violations in Ukraine.
“If you are so desperate to talk about Russia, then you should write about the daily shelling of Donetsk and Belgorod, of atrocities committed by Ukrainian thugs and Kursk terrorist acts on homes in various Russian regions,” said Evgeny Ustinov, first counsellor at the Russian Federation’s Permanent Mission in Geneva.
“The OHCHR clearly does not want to speak about the blatant discrimination against Russia and Russian speakers in Ukraine or about the harsh censorship, elimination of dissenters, extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detention … and crimes committed by Ukrainians against peaceful civilians in Russian cities in the Donbas, Bucha, Belgorod and other oblasts of our country,” he said.
The U.S. representative disagreed with this assessment, describing the OHCHR’s documentation of Russia’s violations and abuses against Ukraine as “exemplary.”
“Next month will mark a cruel milestone, three years of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked war in Ukraine,” said Michele Taylor, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“In those three years, we have seen Russia’s forces commit war crimes, and with other Russian officials, crimes against humanity,” she said, adding that “Russia must answer for all of its reprehensible and unlawful actions.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the OHCHR said, more than 12,300 civilians have been killed, including over 650 children, and more than 27,800 people have been injured. It said more than 700 medical facilities and 1,500 schools and colleges have been damaged or destroyed.
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