Geneva-

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has accused Russia of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in its war against Ukraine.

A new OHCHR report warns that Russia’s armed attacks and occupation of Ukrainian territory will have long-lasting consequences for Ukraine and its people, at a time when global attention to the critical situation appears to be waning.

“Despite the tragic stories of human suffering that unfold every day in Ukraine, I fear the world has become numb to this crisis,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Tuesday.

In a pessimistic assessment of the situation, Turk told the UN Human Rights Council that “it’s been more than two years since the Russian Federation launched a full-scale armed attack on the country. Two years filled with tremendous pain, bloodshed, loss and grief. Countless families have been forcibly separated.” .”

He noted that more than 10,500 civilians were reportedly killed and more than 20,000 injured.

“The actual number is probably much higher,” he said.

The report, which covers the period from December 1 to February 29, 2023, said the war continues with large-scale attacks through “missiles and loitering munitions launched by the Russian armed forces across Ukraine,” causing devastating harm to civilians.

This resulted in a surge in civilian casualties, “reversing a general decline in civilian casualties in 2023,” the report said.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, during which the people of Crimea were “charged and convicted for conduct that is not a crime under Ukrainian law,” the report said.

“Citizenship in the Russian Federation is widely implemented,” Turk said. “The Russian authorities conscripted male residents of Crimea into the Russian armed forces, ultimately forcing them to fight against their own country.”

He said Ukrainian children were deprived of the right to receive education in their own language and people were deprived of the right to express their opinions freely.

“The violations we recorded in occupied Crimea were foreshadowing of what we are now seeing happening in Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian Federation following a full-scale armed attack,” the human rights commissioner said.

“Over the past two years, the Russian armed forces have committed widespread violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including unlawful killings, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions,” he said, adding that these violations occurred with impunity.

“Nowhere to seek justice, no place to seek effective remedies,” he said. “The cumulative effect of these actions created a widespread climate of fear, which allowed the Russian Federation to consolidate its control.”

During the reporting period, OHCHR officials interviewed 60 Ukrainian prisoners of war who had recently been released from Russian captivity during prisoner exchanges. They said prisoners of war provided credible and detailed accounts of torture, beatings, electric shocks, threats of execution, sexual violence and other harsh treatment.

The OHCHR documented 12 executions in which at least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed. It has verified three of the incidents in which Russian soldiers executed seven Ukrainian servicemen.

“During the same period, my office interviewed 44 Russian prisoners of war held in Ukraine,” Turk said. “While they did not complain about treatment and conditions in established detention facilities, some described being subjected to torture and ill-treatment in transit locations after being evacuated from the battlefield.”

The High Commissioner said the tragedy in Ukraine has gone on for too long and called on the Russian Federation to cease armed attacks.

“Violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by Russian armed forces and administrative officials in the occupied territories must stop immediately,” he said.

Russia boycotted the meeting, telling the Security Council president that it “did not want to speak as a concerned country.”

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva has no such qualms. Filipenko Yevheniia harshly criticized Russia and its “systematic deprivation of fundamental rights and freedoms in Crimea, as well as in the occupied parts of Donbas and other Ukrainian territories.”

“Russia is causing significant demographic changes through forced displacement and deliberate population replacement, deliberately altering the fabric of society to consolidate its occupation, and is a serious violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.

“Through torture, arbitrary detention of civilians, and the abduction and indoctrination of Ukrainian children, Russia has blatantly and shamefully committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Ukraine’s ambassador called on UN member states to “condemn the Russian terrorist attack” and send a clear message to the Kremlin that “the international community will not turn a blind eye to the invasion, killing of civilians and destruction of a sovereign country.” critical infrastructure. “