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UN: Russian actions in Ukraine may amount to war crimes
Russian actions in Ukraine, which have included summary executions of civilians and levelling of civilian infrastructure, may amount to war crimes, the UN said on Friday.
“Our work to date has detailed a horror story of violations perpetrated against civilians,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Friday.
“Over these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside,” she said.
“Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes,” said spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.
In the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, a UN rights monitoring mission has documented that 50 civilians had been killed there, including by summary execution, Shamdasani said.
“Almost every resident in Bucha our colleagues spoke to told us about the death of a relative, a neighbour or even a stranger. We know much more needs to be done to uncover what happened there and we also know Bucha is not an isolated incident,” Bachelet said.
The UN mission has received more than 300 allegations of killings of civilians in areas around Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy that were under Russian control until early March.
Source: thesun
