UN Findings Assess Several Violations by Russia in Ukraine Could Be Crimes Against Humanity

The discovery of mass graves in Izium, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Russia is alleged to have committed widespread war crimes in Ukraine such as willful killing and torture, a UN-mandated investigative body said Thursday, in some cases making children witness their loved ones being raped and holding others with dead body by their side.

The alleged crimes, including the deportation of children, were detailed in a report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, which said some of the acts may have amounted to crimes against humanity.

Based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite imagery and visits to detention sites and cemeteries, this report comes as the International Criminal Court in The Hague is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials who have forcibly deported children from Ukraine and attacked civilian infrastructure.

The report said Russian forces carried out an "indiscriminate and disproportionate" attack in Ukraine, calling for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

"The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine has disastrous consequences on many levels," said Erik Møse, chair of the commission, in a press conference, as reported by Reuters March 17

"The loss of life and the general disregard for civilian life... is shocking," he continued.

The report said at least 13 waves of Russian attacks since October against Ukraine's energy-related infrastructure, as well as the use of torture "could be construed as crimes against humanity."

The report found some 16.000 children had been illegally transferred and deported from Ukraine, citing a Ukrainian government official. Russia has denied the accusations, saying it had evacuated people voluntarily from Ukraine.

Other children were forced to witness their loved ones being raped or, in one case, held in a school basement along with the bodies of those who had died, the report said.

Victims in Russian detention facilities were electrocuted with military telephones or hung from the ceiling in a "parrot position", the report said.

The commission's 18-page report will be presented to the Geneva Human Rights Council on Monday. Countries attending the council, the only body made up of governments protecting human rights worldwide, aim to broaden and deepen the commission's mandate.

Occasionally, investigations conducted by this council have resulted in prosecutions in international courts. The commission said it was compiling a list of possible perpetrators which would be handed over to UN authorities.

Asked whether Russia's actions amounted to genocide, as Ukraine believed, Møse said his team had not found any such evidence, but would continue to act on it.

Meanwhile, Ukraine, which has called for the creation of a special tribunal to try Russian political and military leaders who committed aggression over the invasion, said the commission was critical to ensuring that Russia would be held accountable.

The commission found reasonable grounds to conclude that the invasion of Ukraine qualifies as an act of aggression.

The report also found Ukrainian troops had committed "a small number of violations", including what appeared to be indiscriminate attacks and torture on prisoners of war. Ukraine's presidency was not immediately available for comment.

Separately, Russia denies committing atrocities or attacking civilians in Ukraine.

At her weekly news conference, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters Moscow regularly hears these kinds of accusations.

She explained that if those behind such reports stand for objectivity, "then we are ready to analyze specific cases, answer questions, provide data, statistics and facts."

"However, if they are biased, if they only represent one viewpoint... then there is no point in responding to these reports," she continued.