Russian army commits obvious war crimes in occupied territories of Ukraine - Human Rights Watch report
The Russian war in Ukraine has had a catastrophic impact on the civilian population and energy infrastructure, which has overshadowed all other human rights issues in the country.
This is stated in the annual report on the state of human rights of the international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, іnforms Censor.NЕТ with reference to Voice of America.
"Russian forces have committed a number of violations of international humanitarian law, including indiscriminate and disproportionate bombardment and shelling of civilian areas, which have targeted homes, medical and educational facilities," the report says. - "In the occupied territories, Russian or Russian-affiliated forces have committed clear war crimes, including torture, extrajudicial executions, sexual violence and enforced disappearances.
The report also points to Russia's illegal annexation of parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, where residents were forced at gunpoint to vote in internationally unrecognized "referendums."
As of early January 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has confirmed at least 6,919 civilian deaths and more than 11,000 injuries since the beginning of the full-scale conflict, but it believes the actual numbers are much higher. More than 14 million Ukrainians have become refugees or internally displaced persons.
The report cites a number of cases of confirmed use of cluster munitions by Russia, as well as some cases by Ukrainian forces. Cluster munitions are prohibited by the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which has been ratified by 110 states, but neither Ukraine nor Russia is a party to the convention.
Human Rights Watch also pointed to the documented cases of Russia's use of anti-personnel mines, in particular, in the de-occupied territories from which Russian troops were withdrawing. Ukraine is a party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, Russia is not.
Significant attention in the report is devoted to documented apparent and alleged cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine, "including ill-treatment, torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances of civilians and members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces".
"Some detainees were executed without proper judgment, their bodies showed signs of torture," the authors of the document write. - "Russian troops tortured and illegally detained many civilians and kept them for days and weeks in inhuman and degrading conditions in temporary premises such as pits, basements, boiler rooms and factories.
Other documented cases of crimes against civilians include sexual violence, forced displacement, filtration camps, and abuses against prisoners of war.
