“More than 20 months after the Russian invasion, Ukrainian civilians continue to pay a terrible price, with almost 10,000 dead and tens of thousands injured,” according to the conclusions of the report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR ).
“During the last six months, the war has caused, on average, the death of six civilians per day”, specifies the document.
The report highlights continued “missile attacks on residential areas and critical infrastructure” and Russian bombings of the grain industry and agricultural infrastructure that “continue to sow fear and destruction” across Ukraine.
Among the effects of the war on the population, the UN investigation highlights the economic consequences that the Russian invasion had for millions of people.
Widespread torture through beatings, electric shocks, mock executions, sexual violence and other forms of ill-treatment by Russian forces against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians in the occupied territories is another systematic violation documented by the UN.
The report also noted the pressure faced by Ukrainian citizens in occupied areas to accept Russian citizenship, without which they are often denied access to basic services.
Male Ukrainians in these areas also face the threat of being sent to the front to fight on the Russian side against their country’s armed forces.
Another of the abuses denounced in the report are the forced transfers of Ukrainian children and minors, who in many cases were under the care of the Ukrainian State and suffering from mental and intellectual disabilities, from one occupied area to another or to the territory of the Russian Federation.
On the Ukrainian side, the report expressed concern about the almost eight thousand criminal cases opened against alleged Russian collaborators as of July this year. According to the data cited, the justice system issued convictions in “almost all” of the cases judged.
The accused are, in many cases, people who collaborated with the Russian authorities established in territories occupied by Russia, later liberated by Ukraine, and who agreed to work with the occupiers in positions of different responsibilities.
Many of these people told UN investigators that they accepted the positions offered under threats from Russian authorities.
