Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered “the most massive violations of human rights” in the world today, the head of the United Nations has said as the war pushed into its second year with no end in sight.
The Russian invasion “has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement”, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a speech to the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva.
After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital in the opening weeks of the invasion and suffering a series of humiliating setbacks in the east and the south during the autumn, Russia has stabilised the front and is concentrating its efforts on a slow push to capture the rest of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas.
Ukraine hopes to use tanks and other new weapons pledged by the West to launch new counter-offensives and reclaim more of the occupied territory.
Mr Guterres said “attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have caused many casualties and terrible suffering”.
His remarks came as the Ukrainian military said Russia had launched attacks with exploding drones on several regions that lasted from late Sunday until Monday morning, killing two people.
Mr Guterres cited cases of sexual violence, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and violations of the rights of prisoners of war documented by the UN human rights office.
He added that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, now 75 years old, has been “too often misused and abused”.
“It is exploited for political gain and it is ignored, often, by the very same people,” Mr Guterres said. “Some governments chip away at it. Others use a wrecking ball.”
“This is a moment to stand on the right side of history,” he told the council, the UN’s top human rights body. Russia withdrew from its seat last year amid a surge in international pressure over the war in Ukraine.
Russian officials have shown little sign of reconsidering their attack on Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday: “We aren’t seeing any conditions for a peaceful settlement now.”
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, which is chaired by President Vladimir Putin, went a step further, again raising the spectre of nuclear war and a nightmare outcome to Europe’s biggest and deadliest conflict since the Second World War.
He criticised the US and its allies for providing Ukraine with military and other support to help push back the Kremlin’s forces. Their longer-term aim, he claimed, is to break up Russia.
“They have crazy illusions that after finishing off the Soviet Union without a single shot they could bury today’s Russia without any significant problems for themselves simply by disposing thousands of lives in the conflict,” he said.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, @antonioguterres, addressed the opening of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council with a rousing call for a redoubling of efforts to promote and protect #HumanRights.#HRC52 pic.twitter.com/mhsota6R4G
— UN Human Rights Council 📍#HRC52 (@UN_HRC) February 27, 2023
“It’s a very dangerous mistake, it won’t work like it did with the Soviet Union.”
In the latest attacks, Ukraine’s General Staff said Kyiv’s forces shot down 11 out of 14 Iranian-made Shahed drones.
Ukraine’s presidential office said at least two civilians had been killed and nine wounded by Russian attacks over the previous 24 hours.
It said intense fighting has continued around Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Vuhledar in the Donetsk region, which have come under relentless Russian shelling.
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russia is using aircraft and heavy artillery there.
In the south, the city of Kherson also came under Russian shelling, killing one and wounding two civilians.
The city of Nikopol, across the Dnieper from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was also struck by the Russian shelling, which damaged residential buildings, power lines and a gas pipeline.
Odesa and the surrounding region suffered a complete blackout on Monday. Authorities gave no reason for it but said that repair crews will start work to restore the energy supply.
