GENEVA - U.N. investigators say there is evidence that Russian forces who invaded Ukraine in February 2022 committed war crimes. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine presented its findings Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The commission centered its inquiry on events from late February and March in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy. It says it documented many human rights violations, including the illegal use of explosive weapons, indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence.

Commission Chair Erik Mese said Russia's illegal use of explosive weapons has caused immense suffering among the civilian population, and accounts for most of the deaths recorded by United Nations monitors.

He said investigators were struck by the large number of executions in 16 towns and settlements they visited.

"Common elements of such crimes include the 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," Mese said.

The commission interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses. Mese said witnesses have provided consistent accounts of ill-treatment and torture. Some reported they had been transferred to prisons in the Russian Federation, where they were subjected to beatings, electric shocks, and other violations.

Mese said investigations into cases of sexual and gender-based violence found the victims of sexual abuse by Russian soldiers ranged in age from four to 82 years.

"The commission has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined," Mese said. "Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons."

Anton Korynevych, ambassador-at-large for Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said these crimes perpetrated by Russia must not go unpunished. He is calling for the establishment of a special tribunal with specific jurisdiction over the crime of aggression against Ukraine.

The Russian Federation did not show up for the hearing, a fact that the president of the council said he deplores.

Ukraine says residents coerced into Russian annexation vote

Western nations and Ukraine say voting is a sham that began Friday on Russian referendums aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine. Some local officials said voters were being intimidated and threatened.

In the balloting, scheduled to run from Friday to Tuesday in the provinces of Luhansk, Kherson and the partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, voters are being asked if they want their areas to become part of Russia.

Polls also opened in Russia, where refugees and other residents from those areas could vote.

The West and Ukraine said the voting is illegal under international law.

“Any elections or referenda on the territory of Ukraine can only be announced and conducted by legitimate authorities in compliance with national legislation and international standards,” the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe a said in a statement. “Therefore, the planned ‘referenda’ will be illegal.”

Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the vote was over, armed groups were going to homes to force people to cast ballots, and employees were told they could be fired if they did not participate.

Thousands of Russians flee military mobilization as anti-war protests erupt

Thousands of Russians are trying to flee the country to escape the partial mobilization of civilians into the military. The move was announced Wednesday in a televised address by President Vladimir Putin, after Russian armed forces suffered significant losses in recent weeks of their invasion of Ukraine.

Some European officials say this poses a security threat at their borders, and they intend to shift the onus to Putin at home by keeping their borders closed.

At land borders in the country’s east, south and west, lines of cars stretched several kilometers Friday, as Russian citizens, mostly men of conscription age, tried to escape the draft.

Increased traffic and long lines also were reported at Russia’s borders with Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

In the far west, Finnish border guards reported that traffic from Russia has more than doubled in the past 48 hours.

Germany said it would offer protection to Russians fleeing the mobilization “on a case-by-case basis.”

Several other European countries, including those neighboring Russia, such as the Baltic states and Finland, are restricting entry for Russian citizens.

Flights to countries that don’t require a visa, including Turkey, Serbia and Dubai, reportedly were sold out by Thursday. (Source: VOA News)

Story Date: September 24, 2022