A blistering new report by the U.N. human rights office shows that nobody in Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is without fault and that Ukrainian civilians have been arbitrarily detained by both warring parties, but that the Russian Federation is guilty of most of the crimes and cases of abuse.
The report, which was issued Tuesday, covers a 15-month period from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, to May 2023. The documented material is based on 1,136 interviews with victims, witnesses and others, 274 site visits and 70 visits to official places of detention run by Ukrainian authorities.
Authors of the report note that Ukraine gave them “unimpeded confidential access” to official places of detention and detainees, with one exception. They say “the Russian Federation did not grant us such access, despite our requests.”
The report documents more than 900 cases of arbitrary detention of civilians, including children, and elderly people. It says the majority of these — 864 cases — were perpetrated by the Russian Federation, “many of which amounted to enforced disappearances.”
Matilda Bogner heads the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. Speaking from Uzhhorod in western Ukraine, she said her team did not document any cases of arbitrary detention committed by the mercenary Wagner Group because “they do work under the overall control of the army in Russia.”
She noted a previous report published in March had documented cases of arbitrary detention, torture and ill treatment and executions of prisoners of war by the Wagner Group. She added, “None of these cases related to civilian detainees.”
The report documents the summary execution of 77 civilians while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation.
Bogner said, “It is a war crime to execute a civilian after detention. It is also a gross violation of international human rights law.
“In terms of the 77 public executions, I could not say that it is the tip of the iceberg. I think we have documented a large number of them,” she said. “Clearly, we have not documented them all, but I do not think that there are thousands and thousands of cases that we are not aware of.”
She pointed out that the human rights mission had not documented any summary executions of civilian detainees by the Ukrainian forces.
The report says civilians detained by the Russian authorities in territories under their occupation were perceived as supporters of Ukraine. It says they were held incommunicado, often in deplorable conditions.
The report accuses the Russian armed forces and other authorities of having “engaged in widespread torture and ill-treatment of civilian detainees” and in some cases of subjecting them to sexual violence. It said that torture was used to force victims who were detained in Russian-occupied territory to confess to helping Ukrainian armed forces.
The U.N. monitors have documented 75 cases of arbitrary detention by Ukrainian security forces, “mostly of people suspected of conflict-related offenses.” They note that many of these cases also amounted to enforced disappearances.
The monitors documented that “over half of those arbitrarily detained were subjected to torture or ill-treatment by Ukrainian security forces.” Most of these cases, they say, occurred while people were being interrogated after their arrest.
Authors of the report deplore the lack of accountability for these crimes and the failure of Russian authorities to investigate allegations of arbitrary detention and abuse of civilians by Russian armed forces.
They criticize a law approved by the Russian parliament that would potentially exempt from criminal liability perpetrators of international crimes in occupied regions of Ukraine, “if they are committed to protect the interests of the Russian Federation.”
The report notes the Ukrainian government has convicted 23 people, including 19 in absentia, on allegations of civilian detentions by the Russian Federation.
It says, however, “We are not aware of any completed criminal investigations by Ukrainian authorities into its own security forces for such violations.”
