The UN has so far been tight-lipped about alleged war crimes in Ukraine, but investigative bodies confirmed on Friday that such atrocities had indeed been committed in the country since the Russian invasion in February, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine was created in March by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to investigate human rights violations by Russian troops.

In May, the Council approved a new resolution calling on the Commission to specifically investigate serious human rights violations committed by Russian forces in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

During the investigation in four regions, the commission visited 27 towns and villages and interviewed more than 150 victims and witnesses, explained its president Eric Mose in the first report given orally to the Council.

“Based on the evidence collected by the Commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine,” Eric Mose said, listing Russian bombings of civilian areas, numerous executions, torture and ill-treatment, and sexual violence.

Russian soldiers shot Ukrainian civilians and servicemen

“We were shocked by the large number of executions in the regions we visited. Now the commission is investigating such deaths in 16 cities and towns. We have received credible allegations regarding numerous other cases of shootings, which we are currently documenting,” said the head of the relevant commission.

The bodies found have common features of visible signs of execution, such as hands tied behind the back, gunshot wounds to the head or slit throats. Moze also condemned the Russian bombing of some civilian areas in Ukraine.

According to him, the witnesses gave consistent testimony about ill-treatment and torture during illegal detention. Some of the victims said that after their initial detention by the Russian military in Ukraine, they were transported to Russia and held in prisons for weeks.

“The interlocutors described beatings, electric shocks and forcing to expose themselves, as well as other types of violations in these places of detention,” said Moze, who draws attention to the fact that some victims disappeared after being staged in pre-trial detention centers in Russia.

Cases of sexual violence were also reported by UN investigators. In some of them, relatives were forced to help during their execution.

Russians also raped children and old women

In the cases investigated by the commission, the age of victims of sexual or gender-based violence ranged from four to 82 years.

The United Nations Commission also documented cases where children were raped, tortured and illegally imprisoned. “Children have been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons,” Mose said.

He briefly noted that his team also dealt with two cases of brutal treatment of Russian soldiers by the Ukrainian military.

“Even if they are few, these cases continue to be the subject of our attention,” he said.

Follow the latest events of the 212th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.