Geneva, Switzerland
Reuters
Thousands more civilians have been killed in Ukraine during nearly 11 weeks of war there than the official UN death toll of 3,381, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission for the country said on Tuesday.
The United Nations team, which includes 55 monitors in Ukraine, has said most of the deaths were caused by explosive weapons with a wide impact area such as missile and air strikes.
A site of a shopping centre destroyed by shelling is pictured amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine, on 10th May. PICTURE: Reuters/Igor Tkachenko
“We have been working on estimates, but all I can say for now is that it is thousands higher than the numbers we have currently given to you,” Matilda Bogner told a news briefing in Geneva, when asked about the total number of deaths and injuries.
“The big black hole is really Mariupol where it has been difficult for us to fully access and to get fully corroborated information,” she added, referring to the port city in south-east Ukraine that has seen the heaviest fighting of the war.
Moscow denies targeting civilians and calls its invasion, launched on 24th February, a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of what it calls anti-Russian nationalists. Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext for waging an unprovoked war of aggression.
Bogner was speaking following a trip to Ukraine last week where she visited areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv previously occupied by Russian forces.
Her team has reports of over 300 unlawful killings in settlements north of Kyiv, including Bucha, she said and expected this number to rise.
They met a 70-year-old man who hid for more than three weeks in a basement that was so crowded he had to sleep standing up, tying himself to wooden rails to prevent himself falling over. Bogner also voiced concern that both sides were using schools as army bases, with heavy military equipment in some cases.
Her team was also investigating what she described as “credible allegations” of torture, ill-treatment and executions by Ukrainian forces against the Russian invading forces and affiliated armed groups.
“In terms of the extent of violations by Ukrainian forces, while the scale is significantly higher on the side of allegations against Russian forces, we are also documenting violations by Ukrainian forces,” she said.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s European chief said on Tuesday that at least 3,000 people had died in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February because they had been unable to access treatments for chronic diseases.
So far, the UN health agency has documented some 200 attacks in Ukraine on healthcare facilities, and few hospitals are currently functioning, Hans Kluge told a regional meeting of WHO’s 53 member states as well as senior agency colleagues.
“Forty per cent of households have at least one member in need of chronic treatment that they can no longer find, resulting in an estimated at least 3,000 premature avoidable deaths,” he said in a speech, mentioning diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.
A person is transported from a sanitary train that carried children with oncological diseases who fled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Kielce, Poland, on 16th March. PICTURE: Pawel Malecki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters.
Matilda Bogner, head of the UN rights monitoring mission for Ukraine, said on Tuesday she had seen mortality rates rise because of lack of access to care.
“The right to health has been severely affected across the country,” she said. In one cramped school basement in Yahidne, 10 older people had died because it was unsafe to leave the shelter, she told a separate briefing.
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WHO officials said last week they were gathering evidence for a possible war crimes investigation into attacks it says it has documented by Russia. Moscow has denied previous accusations by Ukraine and Western nations of possible war crimes and has also denied targeting civilians in the war.
At the WHO meeting, held in Copenhagen and attended by many virtually, members passed a resolution that could result in the closure of Russia’s regional office and the suspension of meetings in the country.
Russian envoy Andrey Plutnitsky opposed the resolution and said he was “extremely disappointed”.
Some have criticised the WHO measures, saying they do not go far enough. “Shutting the Russian European hub seems meek and mild. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin won’t care,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington, DC, who closely follows the WHO.
Diplomats told Reuters they had dropped efforts to suspend Russia from the WHO executive board due to legal technicalities, although members could later this month seek to freeze Russia’s voting rights.
Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine since 24th February a “special military operation” to disarm the country and rid it of what the Kremlin calls anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
