During the United Nations Security Council meeting in New York on April 11, UNICEF Emergency Program Director Manuel Fontaine and the president of the La Strada-Ukraine human rights organization, Kateryna Cherepakha, informed the Security Council about atrocities that have taken place in Ukraine.
In his remarks, Fontaine, who returned last week from a mission to Ukraine, noted that “in my 31 years as a humanitarian, I have rarely seen so much damage caused in so little time.” He also described the April 8 attack on Kramatorsk train station with civilians attempting to flee as “particularly horrifying.”
“I note the tragic irony that our teams were offloading lifesaving humanitarian supplies only a kilometer away when so many lives were taken away by this needless act of violence,” he said, adding that “the attack on Kramatorsk station is unconscionable. And yet, it is just one of many instances in this war where we have seen a blatant disregard for civilian lives — and international humanitarian law.”
He also touched upon the critical situation in Mariupol and Kherson, food shortages, attacks on the water system infrastructure, and power outages, which have left around 1.4 million people without access to water in Ukraine.
Fontaine underlined that to date the OHCHR has verified that 142 children have been killed and 229 children injured.
Meanwhile, Kateryna Cherepakha said that her organization received nine reports of rape, involving 12 women and girls.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said in her video speech. “We know and see – and we want you to hear our voices – that violence and rape are used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine.”
Sima Bahous, Executive Director for UN Women, noted that the cases must be independently verified, adding that “we are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence. The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”
During the meeting, Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Serhiy Kyslytsya told the Security Council that the Prosecutor-General’s Office of Ukraine was “launching a special mechanism of documentation of cases of sexual violence by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy denied the allegations, saying that “Russia, as we have stated more than once, does not wage war against the civilian population,” accusing Ukraine and others of “a clear intention to present Russian soldiers as sadists and rapists.”
