Russia has detained more than 800 civilians and executed at least 77 of them since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, officials with the United Nations monitoring mission said Tuesday.
U.N. investigators conducted more than 1,000 interviews and visited dozens of detention centers. They said Ukraine also violated international law on a smaller scale by arbitrarily detaining civilians, including children and the elderly, officials said Tuesday.
“The vast majority of these cases were perpetrated by the Russian Federation,” Matilda Bogner, head of the U.N. rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, told reporters by video link from Uzhhorod, Ukraine.
More than 90% of Ukrainian civilians held by Russia said they had been subject to torture or other ill treatment. Ukraine gave U.N. inspectors almost complete access to its detention sites, while Russian officials refused to allow visits despite repeated requests, Ms. Bogner said.
U.N. officials said they don’t have evidence that Ukraine has executed any of the civilians they detained.
“It is a war crime to execute a civilian after detention. It is also a gross violation of international human rights law,” Ms. Bogner said.
The findings are part of a U.N. report scheduled to be released on Tuesday, officials said.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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