The report of the independent UN international commission investigating the war in Ukraine describes in detail the war crimes committed by the Russian occupiers, including torture, rape, murder of civilians, and others. The 18-page report was published today, March 16.
“The collected evidence indicates a prevalent practice of mass executions in 17 settlements of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Sumy regions - with the largest number in Kyiv region, especially in the city of Bucha. The commission confirmed the execution of 65 men, two women, and a 14-year-old boy.” – stated the report.
The commission emphasized that some victims were found with their hands or feet tied. According to medical records and photographs, the most common method of killing was a close-range shot to the head.
Also, the commission found enough evidence about the shooting of the evacuation vehicles by russians.
“The attacks occurred when civilians were trying to evacuate or were performing routine activities. In all cases, the victims were in civilian clothes, unarmed, traveling in civilian cars, some with “Children” signs on the windows,” the report says.
Imprisonment conditions
The commission were told about the places of imprisonment created by russians:
“Overcrowded cells, people forced to sleep on the floor or in turns. Sometimes men, women, and children were kept together. [People] lacked light and ventilation, it was difficult to breathe, report says that there was no heating in sub-zero temperatures. Sanitation conditions were inadequate, sometimes with buckets or bottles as toilets and with limited or no washing facilities. In one case, ten elderly people died due to inhumane conditions in a school basement, while other detainees, including children, had to be in the same room with the dead bodies”.
How did the russians tortured Ukrainians
”Beating with machine gun butts or batons, electric shock torture, rape, and prolonged exposure to the cold. In some cases, the torture was followed by execution”
One of the torture methods was electric shocks using a field telephone, “Tapik “, connected to an electric cable with clamps attached to the feet, toes, or male genitalia. The attackers called it a “call to Lenin” or a “call to Putin”.
Other methods involved hanging detainees from the ceiling with their hands tied, in the so-called “parrots” position, strangulation with cables, suffocation with plastic bags or gas masks, rape, and sexual violence. Victims witnessed the death of prisoners after brutal torture.”
The commission documented cases of sexual violence involving women, men, and children aged four to 82 in nine regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
“Family members, including children, were sometimes forced to watch criminals rape their relatives <…> Rapes took place at gunpoint, with extreme brutality and acts of torture, such as beatings and strangulation. Criminals sometimes threatened to kill the victim or her family if she resisted. In some cases, several soldiers raped the same victim, or the same victim was raped several times. In one case, the victim was pregnant and begged the soldiers to spare her. She miscarried within days “.
The commission also analyzed a video in which Russian soldiers castrated and shot a captured Ukrainian soldier.
