KYIV: Russia has tortured and arbitrarily detained people in occupied Ukraine, creating a “climate of fear” and suppressing Ukrainian identity, a UN report said Wednesday. Since invading in February 2022, Moscow has seized large swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine. The report, which the UN Human Rights Office said was based on over 2,300 interviews, accused Moscow of “committing widespread violations” of human rights law.
Russia has imposed its “language, citizenship, laws, court system, and education curricula on the occupied areas,” while suppressing a Ukrainian identity, the UN office said in a release accompanying the report.
“From the onset, Russian armed forces, acting with generalised impunity, committed widespread violations, including arbitrary detention of civilians, often accompanied by torture and ill-treatment,” it said.
Russia had tried to suppress Ukrainian identity among children, replacing the curriculum in schools with a Russian one which sought to “justify” Moscow’s invasion, the report added.
Peaceful protests have been meet with “force” from the Russian army, which has restricted free expression and pillaged homes and businesses, it said.
The report said Moscow has blocked access to Ukrainian media and phone networks in the regions in an effort to control information. “The actions of the Russian Federation have ruptured the social fabric of communities and left individuals isolated, with profound and long-lasting consequences for Ukrainian society as a whole,” the release quoted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk as saying.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of widespread war crimes in its occupied regions. The Kremlin denies any wrongdoing, calling its takeover of the regions a “liberation.”
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