UN on violence against civilians: 1,000 bodies found just outside Kyiv

The United Nations has expressed shock at the level of violence against civilians. Many of the killings could be attributed to Russian soldiers, Commissioner Bachelet said. Fighting continues in eastern Ukraine.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has denounced “blatant human rights violations” in areas of Ukraine that were formerly under Russian control. In the Kyiv region alone, more than 1,000 civilian bodies have been recovered, she said at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

There are unlawful killings and apparent mass executions on a “shocking” scale. Her office has information on 300 such killings, Bachelet said. She expects the numbers to increase as more information is added. People trying to get water or food or trying to flee were apparently shot dead by snipers and soldiers.

Air raids in residential areas

The majority of civilians killed and injured in the conflict are the result of the use of heavy artillery, multiple rocket launchers and airstrikes in residential areas, Bachelet said. Although both warring parties are responsible for such incidents, the “overwhelming majority” of the victims can be attributed to the Russian army and allied armed groups.

Hundreds of schools and medical facilities were also destroyed or damaged, according to the Human Rights Commissioner. Bachelet reported rapes in areas controlled by Russian forces. A dozen cases nationwide have been confirmed. Many victims, regardless of gender, were reluctant to testify out of fear and shame.

Ukraine insists on resolution

Bachelet said her office continues to investigate allegations of human and international rights violations. Many of these could constitute war crimes, she explained. Ukraine and its supporters in the 47-member body had pushed for the special session on Russia’s war of aggression. A resolution was to be passed calling for “the immediate cessation of military hostilities against Ukraine”.

At the meeting, the Ukrainian leadership denounced “the worst violations of human rights on the European continent in decades”. At the same time, she announced that she would open a first war crimes trial against a Russian soldier. The 21-year-old is accused of shooting dead a civilian from a stolen car, the general prosecutor’s office in Kyiv said.

Attacks on Zaporizhia

Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for more than two and a half months. The goal is at least the complete conquest of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. The United Nations has already registered around 3,500 civilian deaths, but like the Ukrainian leadership assumes the number of victims to be far higher.

Russia apparently continued its airstrikes on the Azovstal plant in Mariupol today. This is reported by the Ukrainian military. The pressure to attack places in eastern Ukraine is also continuing. In the situation report on the 78th day of the Russian war of aggression, the Ukrainian general staff stated that Russian troops were firing artillery and mortars at Ukrainian forces near Zaporizhia, where numerous people from Mariupol had fled. In addition, Russian troops fired artillery at Ukrainian units north of the city of Kharkiv. There were also Russian attacks in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north of the country.

Advance apparently not stopped

In the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting has been ongoing since the start of the war, the Ukrainian military recorded a “partial success” in the Russian advance. Ukrainian troops repelled nine Russian attacks and destroyed several drones and military vehicles. The information could not be independently verified.

In the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Ukrainian troops say they destroyed two Russian military pontoon bridges over the Siverskyi Donets river. In the morning report, however, the Ukrainian general staff stated that the enemy had nevertheless managed to get across the river.

Is the Kremlin regrouping troops?

According to the British military, Ukraine was able to recapture several towns and villages in the northeast of the country from Russian forces. The Defense Ministry in London said Russia’s focus on the Donbass, Ukraine’s industrial heartland, has left the remaining Russian troops around the city of Kharkiv “vulnerable to the mobile and highly motivated Ukrainian counterattack force”.

The British said in a situation report published by the intelligence services on social networks that Russia had reportedly withdrawn units from the region to reorganize and replenish its troops after heavy losses. The withdrawal was a “tacit acknowledgment of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited popular resistance.”