War Crimes Committed by Russia in Ukraine: UN Report

14-year-old boy killed by summary procedure.

4-year-old girls and 82-year-old women were exposed to sexual violence.

The priest was brutally beaten, then stripped naked and forced to parade naked through the streets of his village for an hour.

These were among the nightmarish findings of the new Report supported by the UN released Thursday that found Russia committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during its tenure invasion of Ukraine.

Three international experts appointed to work as investigators for the Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine have concluded that Russia is guilty of grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

This included indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and targeted attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, as well as torture, illegal imprisonment, summary executions and rape.

“The commission is concerned about the number, geographic spread and severity of human rights violations and corresponding international crimes it has documented during its mandate,” the investigators wrote in their report. “This affected men, women, boys and girls of all backgrounds and ages.”

The report is likely to have little practical effect on Russia, but it will increase pressure to hold the country accountable by the International Criminal Court.

At the very least, the report also functions as a historical record of abuses committed by Russia, which has not cooperated with the investigation.

As one man whose father was executed by Russian soldiers in a village in the Kharkiv region told investigators: “They punished innocent people; now those who are guilty, if they are still alive, must be punished to the fullest extent.”