Torture and the forcible deportation of 2.5 million people were among the shocking details of human rights violations against Ukrainian civilians recounted at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Deputy Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn told the council that 2.5 million people, including 38,000 children, have been forcibly deported from the country under a Russian “filtration” program.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has also documented “filtration” cases, it said. During these cases, “Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups have subjected persons to body searches, sometimes involving forced nudity, and detailed interrogations about the personal background, family ties, political views and allegiances of the individual concerned,” according to Ilze Brands Kehris, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights.
Brands Kehris said there have been credible allegations of forced transfers of Ukrainian children to “Russian occupied territory, or to the Russian Federation itself.”
“We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified procedure to grant Russian citizenship to children without parental care, and that these children would be eligible for adoption by Russian families,” she added.
