GENEVA: Russia’s war in Ukraine has made serious rights violations “shockingly routine” and is diverting humanity from battling threats to its survival, the United Nations (UN) rights chief warned on Friday.
While speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Volker Turk denounced horrific violations carried out since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine thirteen months ago and warned the war continues to send shock waves across the globe.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed to how sharp increases in the rates of energy, food, and other commodities had intensified tensions and inequalities in every region.
He warned that this was exacerbating the most serious global cost-of-living crisis in a generation that has pushed around 71 million into poverty and threatened the stability of numerous nations.
Turk said that when humanity faces big existential challenges, this destructive conflict tugs us away from bringing solutions and ensuring our survival. This war and madness must end, and peace be found.
UN council informed
In his update to the UN council on Ukraine’s situation, Turk said his office had verified that over 8,400 civilians had died and more than 14,000 civilians had been wounded since the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022.
He said that most of the casualties resulted from Russian troops using wide-impact explosive weapons in residential areas.
He also underlined findings by a UN investigative team of “numerous targeted attacks and summary executions of civilians by Russian troops and affiliated armed outfits like the Wagner Group, as well as 621 cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances.
Ukrainian armed troops had also carried out summary executions, these findings revealed.
Meanwhile, UN interviews with eighty-nine civilians released from detention indicated that 91% of them were tortured or ill-treated by the Russian military, including through various forms of sexual violence, Turk added.
He said 5 cases of enforced disappearances involved 5 boys as young as fourteen, who were all “tortured or ill-treated.”
Turk further said that his staff had also documented 109 cases of sexual abuse by Russian troops, mainly in places of detention.
UN crew had also verified 91 cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance by Ukrainian security forces, with over half saying they had been ill-treated or tortured, he said.
