Now that the results of the sham referenda held in Russian controlled
parts of Ukraine have been announced, Russia could annex the territory
within days. At the same time, Ukraine's military is pushing ahead
with a counter offensive that's already retaken some parts of those
regions. Nick Schifrin looks at what Russian forces left behind and
the crimes they committed.
At their peak, Russian forces captured nearly 20% of Ukraine and
each village city and district they occupy. They leave behind a trail
of horror in buka in suburbs of Kiev, more than 1000 bodies buried
in mass graves that you see there in the zoom outside Kharkiv. Investigators
have finished exhuming the bodies of more than 400 Ukrainians. 99%,
according to Ukrainian officials died from violence and dozens if
not more, were tortured before they were killed.
For the first time. Last week, a group of UN appointed experts presented
preliminary evidence of Russian atrocities. The official in charge
of the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine
is Eric Jose. And he joins me now, Eric Jose. Thank you very much.
Welcome to the news hour, your commission visited 27 towns and settlements
in Ukraine and interviewed more than 150 witnesses and victims. What
is this scale?
Of Russian war crimes well, so far we had investigated for areas
of Ukraine. We have seen that there had been counted of hostilities
where there were explosive weapons used, which caused devastation,
both for buildings Infrastructure hospital, and we have also seen
Violations of personal integrity.
A large number of executions, torture and ill treatment, sexual and
gender based crime as well as violence against Children. You said
that there are signs of sexual and gender based crime on civilians
aged 4 to 82 years old. It's It's hard to believe that but have you
found that sexual assault? Sexual violence is a deliberate act of
control employed by the Russians, and we have so far
Hi.
Noted that some Russians acted in this way based on the investigation
so far in this debate, lawyers that there were anyway rapes and
even person being forced to witness rapes, who will family members.
Let's talk about some of the examples of torture in prisons. I've
talked to some of these people in Kharkiv what conditions were Ukrainian
prisoners held inside occupied territory. They were
such ill treatment, partly in Ukraine and partly in
Hmm. Russia after having been transferred to Russia, and according
to our investigations, they just from weeks increased loans and people
there were market execution forced nudity. They will visible signs
of executions when you examine the Bacchus. Ukraine has consistently
insisted that the best way to hold Russia accountable is to create
a new tribunal to pursue the
Crime of aggression specifically to target. Senior Russian officials.
Prosecutor General Andrew Kostin said that to me on this show last
week
The crime of aggression is the mother of all of other war crimes
Without crime of aggression committed there could be no other war
crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide acts is the crime of
aggression. The best way to find justice. This option is one of several
possibilities. It is among those who are discussing, but they have
quite a few once of accountability that has to be taken into accounts.
Yeah, both the national level. You could have coordinated quotes
or special cords nationally level will. You can have different kinds
of international courts.
Including the one you just mentioned. Ukraine's prosecutor general
also said they have documented some 30,000 cases of war crimes since
the beginning of the war. Do you have any sense of that? If that
number is in the vicinity of the scale of what we're looking at today
in Ukraine, it is clear that the group atrocities or that use alleged
atrocity vast in the country.
This illustrates in a way
the virtues of our mandate. We will have to look into the overall
picture of what happened in Ukraine try to single out the main patterns.
And come up with this solid conclusion in our report in March next
year, it's a huge task.