The head of the UN-backed Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine Erik Møse told theyr have not found evidence of genocide while investigating violations of human rights in Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Guardian reports.
"We have not found that there has been a genocide within Ukraine," Møse said.
He noted that the team is following the evidence and that there are "some aspects which may raise questions with respect to that crime" about possible genocide.
At the same time, the UN investigative body recognized that Russia committed a wide range of war crimes in Ukraine, including intentional killings, systematic torture and deportation of children.
According to the report, released on March 16, Russian troops carried out "indiscriminate and disproportionate" attacks on Ukraine, resorted to torture, killed civilians outside of combat, and failed to take measures to protect the Ukrainian population.
The commission called the repeated attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, which left hundreds of thousands of people without heat and electricity during the coldest months, potential crimes against humanity.
The report also describes the "systematic and widespread" use of torture in many regions under Russian occupation, and provides details of torture methods used by the occupiers, including electric shocks with a military phone – a treatment known as a “call to Putin” – or hung from the ceiling in a “parrot position”.
"The report, based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite images and visits to detention sites and graves, comes as the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure," the Guardian pointed out.
In October 2022, the UN Commission of Inquiry already published a report on Russian war crimes in Ukraine.