Russia tortures Ukrainians to death – UN Commission on Ukraine

On September 25, members of a UN investigative body looking into Russia's crimes against Ukraine reported that some Ukrainian victims had succumbed to brutal torture and died, while their families were forced to listen to Russian soldiers rape women in neighboring houses

This is reported by Reuters.

The head of the UN commission, Erik Møse, who is investigating war crimes and other violations committed by Russia during its aggression against Ukraine, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that his team had gathered additional evidence indicating that the use of torture by Russian forces in areas under their control was widespread and systematic.

"In some cases, torture was inflicted with such brutality that it caused the death of the victim. Russian soldiers raped and committed sexual violence against women of ages ranging from 19 to 83 years," he said.

In particular, it concerns the temporarily occupied Kherson region. He noted that relatives of the victims often witnessed or heard victims of Russian crimes.

Møse added that Russia did not contact the commission. It was given the opportunity to express its position at the council's hearings, but there was no Russian representative there.

Evidence base of Russian war crimes in Ukraine

On September 18, the International Court of Justice in The Hague considered the second case in Ukraine's lawsuit against Russia "Concerning allegations of genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide". Then Russia repeated the accusation that the "Russophobic and neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv" is using the 1948 Genocide Convention, to which both countries are parties, as a pretext to "drag" the case to court.

The hearings will last from September 18 to 27, but the court was supposed to make a decision on jurisdiction later.

Later, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anton Korynevych, speaking at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, responded to Russia's accusations that Ukraine was allegedly committing genocide against its own people.

On September 20, more than a dozen European countries, as well as Australia and Canada, asked the International Court of Justice to determine its jurisdiction in the genocide case brought by Ukraine against Russia.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the UN Security Council. During his speech, he emphasized the need to reform the organization, create a mechanism to overcome the veto and allow all nations to be represented. The President emphasized that Russia's veto power in the UN "makes the organization incapacitated."

On September 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the UN that Russian terrorists are allegedly ready for talks on Ukraine.