The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, defended this Wednesday in Kiev that the suffering of millions of civilians throughout Ukraine “cannot become the new normal”.
Speaking in the Ukrainian capital after a four-day official visit to the country, Volker Türk said the level of damage and destruction he saw in Izium was “shocking”, according to a statement issued by the UN.
In Busha, north of Kiev, where, shortly after the withdrawal of Russian troops, images of civilian corpses strewn on the streets, piled up, some charred, others piled in mass graves, were shown, sparking outrage from the international community, the UN High Commissioner said that the trauma of the population “continues to be evident”.
He added fear for all citizens of the country who may be victims of the “long and dark winter that is coming”, and also confirmed that the consequences of the war in Ukraine have “been devastating” in terms of human rights.
“The prognosis is very worrying,” declared the UN official, who stressed that the High Commission continues to receive information on war crimes “every day.”
“Information continues to reach us about summary executions, torture, arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, and sexual violence against women, girls, and men,” he said.
His visit to the Russian-invaded country on February 24 this year coincided with the publication of a new report on the killing of civilians by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
The report documents what happened to 441 civilians in areas of three northern regions of Ukrainian territory – Kiev, Chernigiv and Sumi – that were under Russian control until early April.
The United Nations mission in Ukraine is also working to substantiate claims of more killings in those regions and in parts of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions that were recently retaken by Ukrainian forces, Türk said.
Some were killed “when chopping wood or shopping for groceries,” he said, adding that there are “strong indications that the summary executions documented in the report constitute the war crime of intentional homicide.”
Regarding prisoners of war, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights insisted that they must “always be treated with humanity” and explained that international law establishes that they can be brought before the courts “only if they are suspected of crimes of war”.
As a direct result of the Russian invasion, 17.7 million people are currently in need of humanitarian aid and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and shelter, the official said.
Volker Türk also indicated that a third of the population of Ukraine was forced to flee their homes, with almost 7.9 million people leaving the country, mostly women and children, and 6.5 million internally displaced.
From February 24 to December 5, 2022, the United Nations agency that he presides confirmed 6,702 civilian deaths and 10,479 wounded in Ukraine, although it stresses that these figures are far below the real ones.
“Let me emphasize that the most effective way to stop this long list of atrocities is to end this senseless war, in accordance with the UN Charter and international law,” the High Commissioner reiterated.
“My greatest wish is that all people in Ukraine can enjoy the right to peace,” he concluded.
Source: TSF
