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The UN human rights watchdog has documented dozens of summary killings of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war (PoWs), as well as the use of torture, human shields and other abuses against PoWs since Russia launched an attack on its neighbor that could amount to war crimes, according to a report released on Friday.
The first comprehensive view by the mission of the UN human rights office in Ukraine on the treatment of PoWs was released along with an update on overall human rights violations from the six-month period to January. The report is based on interviews with about 400 PoWs, half of whom were freed Ukrainians and the other half Russians held captive in Ukraine.
The team said it had no access to PoWs held in Russia or Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine where they identified 48 internment sites. The mission said it recorded some 40 summary executions during the 13-month war.
The UN rights office, which has had a monitoring team in Ukraine since fighting broke out in eastern Ukrainian territory claimed by Russian-backed separatists in 2014, said its findings were based on confirmed cases and usually underestimated the real number.
“We are deeply concerned about the documented summary execution of up to 25 Russian prisoners of war and people ordered to combat by the armed forces of Ukraine,” said Matilda Bogner, head of the UN monitoring mission, at a Kyiv press conference. .
Bogner cited alleged abuses by both sides but noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was at the root of the violence against civilians and PoWs. He said Ukrainian prosecutors were investigating several cases, but none had been brought to justice.
“In relation to the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war, we are also deeply concerned by the summary execution of 15 Ukrainian prisoners of war shortly after their capture by the Russian armed forces,” Bogner said. “The Wagner Group – a military and security contractor – carried out 11 of these executions.”
It also recorded five cases in which Ukrainian PoWs died after being tortured or ill-treated, and four cases of death due to lack of medical attention during internment.
The report found that while abuse of PoWs occurred on both sides, it was more common against Ukrainians – more than 9 out of 10 interviewees reported abuse – than against Russians, about half of whom testified to abuse.
The UN has released a report detailing various war crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But for the international criminal justice system, establishing the facts is only the first challenge.
In an update on rights violations affecting other groups, the rights office said children from the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were sent to a “summer camp” in Russia with their parents’ consent but did not return home as expected after the holidays . Parts of Kharkiv province were under Russian control last year before the Ukrainian military retook them in a counteroffensive last summer.
About 200 children are set to camp in the Russian city of Krasnodarskyi Krai, stay after the summer and are enrolled in local schools, according to a second report. The update noted that Russian authorities said in October that 2,500 children from Ukraine were living in temporary accommodation centers in Russia, and that some were still there.
But the right office warned that it remained unclear how many unaccompanied children were placed in camps, temporary accommodation or institutional care in Russia, as well as how many children were transferred to their parents.
The UN reported earlier this week that it has recorded the deaths of 8,317 civilians in Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, and injured 13,809 others in connection with the conflict. He warned that these figures underestimate the actual casualties. .
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