In Ukraine, Russian troops raped and tortured children

• The Independent International Commission of Inquiry was set up by the U.N. to probe conduct of the war.
• Children have been killed and wounded in “indiscriminate attacks” by Russian troops, the commission says.
• The commission is investigating executions in 16 towns and settlements.

According to a United Nations investigation led by legal experts, Russian troops raped and tortured children in Ukraine, carried out a “large number” of executions, and committed other war crimes.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry, established by the United Nations to investigate the conduct of the war, released its chilling findings Friday in Geneva, describing a long list of abuses and atrocities in four regions.

“Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine,” Erik Mose, the commission’s chairman, told the United Nations Human Rights Council.

According to Mose, a Norwegian judge, the commission has documented cases of children being “raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined.”

“There are examples of relatives being forced to witness crimes.” “He continued. “In the cases we investigated, victims of sexual and gender-based violence ranged in age from four to 82 years.”

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According to him, children have also been killed and injured in “indiscriminate attacks” by Russian forces using explosive weapons.

Mose and his colleagues “were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited,” he said.

The commission is looking into executions in 16 towns and settlements and has “credible allegations regarding many more cases of executions,” he said.

According to Mose, the execution cases frequently included “prior detention of the victims as well as visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats.”

Witnesses “provided us with consistent accounts of ill-treatment and torture” for Ukrainians unlawfully detained, he said.

The commission’s update comes on the heels of other allegations of war crimes from international human rights organisations, Western governments, and Ukrainian authorities, including the recent discovery of a mass burial site in the eastern town of Izyum.

He also stated that the commission had discovered two cases of “ill-treatment against Russian Federation soldiers by Ukrainian forces.” “Despite their rarity, such cases continue to occupy our attention.””

The commission visited 27 towns and settlements and interviewed 150 victims and witnesses in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy.

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