Ukrainian authorities investigating allegations of atrocities by Russian forces have found evidence of a litany of war crimes in the kyiv suburb of Irpin, including torture, mass murder and the use of banned weapons, it said on Tuesday. the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
speaking for a televised press conference In Irpin, which was one of the most fiercely contested battlefields in the early phase of the war, Attorney General Iryna Venediktova said 290 bodies had been recovered for forensic examination in the city.
She said her team had identified a Russian soldier who she said was responsible for torturing at least 10 people. Victims “had their phones confiscated” and were then “beaten in the ribs and legs, threatened with death, and denied food and water,” she said. She said the soldier had been helped by others who had not yet been identified.
Investigators have confirmed that Russia’s 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade had been in Irpin. That is the same unit whose members have been accused of kidnapping and torturing unarmed civilians in the nearby town of Bucha.
Prosecutors also documented summary shootings and mass burials at seven locations, Ms. Venediktova said, as well as the use of numerous weapons prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, including antipersonnel mines and arrow-shaped shrapnel projectiles.
Asked about the growing reports of Russian soldiers raping Ukrainians, Ms Venediktova said she anticipated a “huge number” of cases would emerge, but did not reveal how many were being investigated. In the first two weeks of April, approximately 400 cases of sexual violence by Russian soldiers were reported to the Ukrainian human rights defender.
“The victims are not ready to speak,” Venediktova said, adding that many survivors of the attacks remain in Russian-controlled territories and fear reprisals.
In the coming days, senior UN officials and investigators are expected to provide more resources to Ukrainian authorities to help prosecute sex crimes. Pramila Patten, the top UN Officer for Sexual Violence in Conflict, he said last week that six investigators would soon join an international monitoring team in Ukraine to document the sexual assaults as possible war crimes.
The influx of international support is fueling a broader push to verify sex crime reports and train prosecutors in Ukraine to preserve evidence and protect traumatized victims during interrogations.
The Kremlin has denied allegations of war crimes and sexual violence and dismissed images of apparent victims of atrocities in the kyiv suburb of Bucha as staged. But as evidence mounts that Russian forces deliberately killed Ukrainian civilians without cause, world leaders have vowed to hold Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin to account.
Ms. Venediktova accused Putin on Tuesday of being “the top criminal of the 21st century” and said he should be prosecuted “absolutely” for war crimes committed by his soldiers.
Reference-www.nytimes.com