‘Arbitrary Killings’ – UN Rights Chief Describes Dire Situation in Donbas and Beyond

The head of the UN’s Human Rights Committee on Tuesday warned the body about shrinking freedoms in the parts of Ukraine now under Russian control, and floated he idea of more prisoner swaps and weapons reductions in densely populated areas.

“The plight of civilians has become even more unbearable,” he said, as he presented a report on conditions in occupied Ukraine over the past five months. “As peace negotiations continue, our monitoring and reporting show that the war is intensifying, causing more death, damage, and destruction.”

Among the chief concerns listed by Volker Turk while presenting to the UNHRC were repression of freedoms of speech and religion and confiscation of private property.

“In Russian-occupied territories, our findings include tightening restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and religion. Internet and messenger services have been further limited,” Turk said as he presented his office’s latest report, which described the situation in occupied Ukraine from June 1 to Nov 30.

“There are growing concerns about property confiscation by the Russian authorities in occupied territory, in violation of international humanitarian law. As of November 2025, more than 38,000 homes had been registered as potentially abandoned in occupied regions. Ukrainians reported being unable to verify the status and retain ownership of their private property, due to procedural obstacles.”

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The Austrian lawyer, who once served as deputy Chief of Mission to both Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, also sounded the alarm that, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, his office has documented the extrajudicial killing of 96 Ukrainian prisoners of war and people considered outside of combat.

“Since mid-November, we have recorded an increase in reports of executions of Ukrainian service personnel. We assessed as credible the reported killing of 14 Ukrainian prisoners of war after capture by Russian forces, and we are looking into 10 other cases,” he said.

AFP noted a September report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which claimed that Russia is responsible for “widespread and systematic violations” of international law in the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war, including “arbitrary killings.”

Estimates indicate that at least 13,500 members of the Ukrainian armed forces have been detained since Moscow’s invasion, it added.

Turk said that as part of negotiations on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace, he encouraged “confidence-building measures, including commitments not to use long-range weapons and short-range drones in densely populated areas, and commitments not to target critical energy infrastructure.

Such measures could also include “commitments to exchange all prisoners of war and to release and return home all Ukrainian civilian detainees,” he said.