Russia has committed high-profile war crimes in Ukraine, including forcible expulsions of children from areas it controls, according to a report by a United Nations-backed investigation.
The allegations were detailed in a report released Thursday by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine, which said some acts may amount to crimes against humanity.
Among the potential crimes against humanity, investigators cited repeated attacks targeting Ukrainian infrastructure in recent months that left hundreds of thousands of people without heat or electricity during the winter, as well as the “systematic use and widespread” torture in several regions under Russian occupation.
“There were elements of planning and availability of resources which indicate that the Russian authorities may have committed acts of torture as crimes against humanity,” said Erik Møse, a former judge at the Norwegian Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, which conducted the investigation.
The investigation revealed crimes committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children who were prevented from reuniting with their families, a “filtration” system aimed at isolating Ukrainians for detention, as well as torture and inhuman conditions of detention.
Russia denies committing atrocities or attacking civilians in Ukraine.
During her weekly press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that Moscow regularly hears such accusations.
She added that if those behind these reports support objectivity “then we are prepared to analyze specific cases, answer questions, provide data, statistics and facts. But if they are biased, if they only represent one point of view, … then there is no point in responding to these reports.
The 18-page report is based on more than 500 interviews, satellite images and visits to places of detention and graves. It was released as the International Criminal Court in The Hague is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and attacking civilian infrastructure.
The report said Russian forces carried out “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on Ukraine and called for the perpetrators to be held accountable.
“The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine has had devastating effects on different levels,” Møse said. “The loss of life and general disregard for civilian life…is shocking.
The report said at least 13 waves of Russian attacks since October against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as well as its use of torture “could amount to crimes against humanity”.
He quoted a Ukrainian government official who concluded that around 16,000 children had been illegally transferred and deported from Ukraine. Russia denies the charge, saying it voluntarily evacuated people from Ukraine.
Other children were forced to watch loved ones raped or, in one case, were held in a school basement next to dead bodies, according to the report.
Victims in Russian detention centers were subjected to electric shocks with a military telephone – a treatment known as “calling for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” — or hanging from the ceiling in a “parrot position,” the report says.
Asked whether Russia’s actions could constitute genocide, as Ukraine insists, Møse said his commission had not yet found such evidence but would continue to follow up.
Ukraine, which has called for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia’s political and military leaders for the crime of aggression over the invasion, said the commission was essential to ensure that Russia would be held responsible.
The commission found reasonable grounds to conclude that the invasion of Ukraine qualifies as an act of aggression.
The report also found that Ukrainian forces had committed a “small number of violations”, including what appeared to be indiscriminate attacks and torture of prisoners of war.
The Ukrainian government had no immediate comment.
The commission’s report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. Member countries of the council, the only body made up of governments to protect human rights around the world, aim to broaden and deepen the commission’s mandate.
Sometimes the council’s investigations lead to prosecutions in international tribunals. The commission said it was working on a list of potential perpetrators that would be passed on to UN authorities.
