The United Nations (UN) human rights office sounded an alarm on Friday over mounting evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, urging Moscow and Kiev to order fighters to respect international law.
“Russian armed forces indiscriminately bombed populated areas, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that could amount to war crimes,” said the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Michelle Bachelet
The UN human rights office also documented what appeared to be the use of weapons by the Ukrainian armed forces in the east of the country causing deaths.
Russia, which describes its incursion as a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine, denies targeting civilians or committing such war crimes.
The OHCHR said that from the start of the war on 24 February to 20 April, there were 5,264 civilian casualties, of which 2,345 were killed and 2,919 wounded.
Of these, 92.3% were registered in government-controlled territory. About 7.7% of the victims were recorded in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups, he added.
“We know that the real numbers will be much higher as the horrors inflicted in areas of intense fighting such as Mariupol come to light,” Bachelet said.
“The scale of summary executions of civilians in areas previously occupied by Russian forces is also emerging. Preservation of evidence and decent treatment of remains must be ensured, as well as psychological and other relief for victims and their relatives,” he added.
During a mission to Bucha on April 9, UN human rights officials documented the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of about 50 civilians, he said.
They received more than 300 allegations of killings of civilians in the Kiev, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions, all under the control of the Russian armed forces, in late February and early March, he added.
Source: CNN Brasil
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