GENEVA: In just the first weeks of Moscow's war in Ukraine, Russian forces summarily killed hundreds of civilians, the UN rights chief said Thursday, decrying likely war crimes.
Volker Turk told the United Nations Human Rights Council his office had documented the summary executions and direct killings of 441 civilians across just three regions of Ukraine from the time Russia's full-scale invasion began on Feb 24 until April 6.
Turk said the direct killings of 341 men, 72 women, 20 boys and eight girls had been documented in 102 villages and towns across the Kyiv, Chernigiv and Sumy regions during that time-frame.
"The actual figures are likely to be considerably higher as we are working to corroborate an additional 198 alleged killings in these regions," he told the council.
In the Kyiv suburb of Bucha alone, where hundreds of bodies were discovered after the Russian army was driven out in March, the investigators documented the killing of 73 civilians, and were working to corroborate 105 additional cases.
"There are strong indications that the summary executions documented in the report may constitute the war crime of wilful killing," Turk said.
'Truly chilling'
A line of country representatives took the floor to voice their outrage over the findings and ongoing violations in Ukraine.
Ukrainian ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko told the council the findings "once again point to the drastic human rights ramifications caused by the unprovoked and unjustified Russian aggression".
French ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said the murders of innocent civilians "for no apparent reason in front of their homes, in the street" were "truly chilling".
And the European Union's ambassador Lotte Knudsen said the bloc was "appalled by the reported extrajudicial killings, torture and other horrendous attacks on civilians in Ukraine by Russian forces."
"The scale of brutality goes far beyond human understanding," she said, insisting "accountability... must be ensured."
Turk, who last week visited the war-torn country, also stressed the need for accountability for all violations committed in the conflict.
He said Ukraine had taken numerous steps to ensure accountability for violations, but was facing capacity constraints to investigate cases.
Accountability 'sorely lacking'
By contrast, he said his office had seen no evidence that Russia had held a single soldier or commander in rank accountable for illegal killings or for failing to try to stop them.
"Accountability remains sorely lacking," he said.
Turk provided harrowing details of some of the killings documented.
Russian soldiers had executed civilians in makeshift detention sites, while "others were summarily executed on the spot following security checks, in their houses, yards, and doorways", he said.
Civilians were also "struck on roads while moving within or between settlements or while commuting to work".
In Mokhnatyn village in the Chernigiv region, investigators had documented the killings of an 18-year-old man, and 17-year-old twin boys when a Russian military column passed them on the road.
"The first vehicle of the column stopped, aimed its cannon at the 18-year-old, and opened fire. The victim was killed instantly, with the force of the impact tearing parts of his body away," the report said, adding that soldiers then emerged from the armoured vehicles and shot the twin boys.
Torture, sexual violence
The report also detailed how Russian armoured vehicles and tanks fired at residential buildings, killing civilians in their homes.
Beyond the period examined by the report, Turk said his team had continued to document ongoing gross violations affecting both civilians and combatants in the conflict, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence.
The UN rights chief and many of the diplomats at Thursday's meeting also voiced alarm at the ongoing attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which have left millions without electricity, heat or water as freezing winter temperatures set in.
With these attacks, Russia is "effectively adding freezing to starvation as a weapon of war," US ambassador Michele Taylor said.
