“In the cases we investigated, the age of the victims of sexual and gender-based violence ranged from four to 82 years,” Eric Moshe, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “The Commission has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured and unlawfully imprisoned. Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons.” The commission said it found two incidents of ill-treatment of Russian soldiers in Ukrainian captivity. The three human rights experts at the Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Ukraine traveled to Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, visited 27 cities and interviewed more than 150 people. Speaking at the UN Security Council on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the “increased activity of international justice”, calling it “undoubtedly a painstaking job”. The Commission said that “certain soldiers of the Russian Federation” were responsible for sexual and gender-based violence. “These acts amounted to different types of rights violations, including sexual violence, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment. There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes,” he added. Møse also noted that some attacks investigated by the commission “have been carried out indiscriminately between civilians and combatants, including attacks with cluster munitions and airstrikes in populated areas.” Commission members were “struck by the large number of executions in the areas we visited,” Møse added. “Typical elements of such crimes include the victims’ previous detention as well as visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind the back, gunshot wounds to the head and slit throats,” it said. “Some of the victims reported that after initial detention by Russian forces in Ukraine, they were transferred to the Russian Federation and held for weeks in prisons. Interlocutors described beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity, as well as other types of violations in such detention facilities.”


title: “Russia S War In Ukraine " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-22” author: “Alvera Kelly”


Ukrainian officials say residents of Russian-held regions ignore referendums organized by Kremlin-backed local authorities, but have acknowledged that in some cases, residents are forced to vote. The referendums, called Tuesday in four Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, have been widely denounced by Western governments as a fraud and are being held with little or no international observers beyond delegations from Russia. “There is no referendum as such. It’s a fake. Locals ignore it. Some people are just forced to vote. There were busloads of people brought from Crimea to vote,” said Andriy Yusov, an official of the Ukrainian Intelligence Service. CNN. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it had uncovered documents showing the separatist-backed Donetsk People’s Republic planned to expand the electorate by involving teenagers under 18 in the vote. In order to strengthen “turnout” control, Donetsk officials decided that minors should be accompanied to polling stations by parents, guardians or representatives of so-called orphanages, the SBU added. Pro-Russian officials in the occupied territories are enthusiastically promoting the referendums as a historic change. “Today is a day that happens in history once every few centuries. I personally knew it would happen, always. I always felt that I was part of a huge family called Russia. Dreams came true,” Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-backed head of the administration of the Kherson region, he said on his Telegram channel. As he cast his vote, Saldo said he was confident that as part of the Russian Federation, “our Kherson region and, above all, its people will be protected. It is protected in every way.” The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, also voted, saying: “I feel awe and confidence that what we fought for so long is finally coming true. This is the return home. Return to great Russia. History is being made today.” Voting continues until Tuesday.