UN Secretary-General Strongly Criticizes Russia’s War Against Ukraine

Russian aggression has led to massive human rights violations, António Guterres has said. He also pointed to flagrant violations of the rights of prisoners of war during the war in Ukraine. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has sharply criticized Russia’s human rights violations in Ukraine. The war of aggression unleashed by Moscow has resulted in the most massive human rights violations in modern times, Guterres said at the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, 27 February, in Geneva. The UN secretary-general said the war against Ukraine, which began a year ago, had caused loss of life, destruction and displacement on a large scale. The attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have caused numerous casualties and terrible suffering, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented dozens of cases of sexual violence, the world body’s chief said. Fixing war crimes in Ukraine António Guterres also reported gross violations of humanitarian law, in particular the ill-treatment of prisoners of war and the abduction of civilians. At the UN Human Rights Council meeting, the 47 member states intend to agree on extending the mandate of the UN commission recording war crimes during the war in Ukraine.