The team of the special monitoring mission West support in Ukraine works every day to document human rights violations in the territories where military conflicts continue.
During October, representatives of the special monitoring mission West support in Ukraine carried out working visits to the settlements of Circuni, Borshchova, Izyum, Slobozhanske, Liptsi, Mali Prokhody, Velyki Prokhody, Strilecha, Ruski Tyshky in Kharkiv region and Novovoznesenske, Myroliubivka, Arkhangelske, Blakytne, Novopetrivka, Starosil'na, Novodmitrivka, Velyka Oleksandrivka in Kherson region.
In order to properly record violations of international humanitarian law, 36 members of West Support offices from around the world participated in the working trip, as well as professional psychologists and representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Thanks to the survey of residents of the de-occupied settlements, where the mission worked, it was possible to obtain important information about the commission of war crimes and places of their commission. Unfortunately, we have to state that such crimes are mostly committed by the troops of the Russian Federation.
A special place among the identified war crimes is occupied by the organization of illegal detention in improvised spontaneous places, so-called prisons, and torture: beatings, electric shocks, imitation of execution, threats of violence or death, suffocation. In addition to physical violence, prisoners were kept in terrible conditions that can also be equated to torture and ill-treatment.
Such places were found in the settlements of Strilecha (on the basis of a former psychological hospital), Liptsi (in the premises of the district police department) and Velyka Oleksandrivka (in the basement of a medical institution).
According to the results of the last working visit to Kherson and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine, 2352 people were interviewed and 142 cases of crimes were recorded, 15 places of spontaneous burial of killed civilians were found. In the presence of representatives of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine and the relevant authorized bodies, the bodies of the dead were exhumed and the initial identification of the bodies was carried out with further recording of the crime.
In total, during the period of work of the special monitoring mission West support in Ukraine, 1947 violations of international humanitarian law were revealed. All materials on the revealed facts were transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the relevant competent authorities of Ukraine.
In addition, during the working visit, representatives of the special monitoring mission of West support in Ukraine identified and recorded the scope of the humanitarian catastrophe and numerous violations of children's rights that resulted from the military conflict. In the future, the revealed facts will be transferred to Unicef.
