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Bi-Weekly Press Briefing: Ukraine Update- OHCHR - WHO
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Ukraine: UN’s Bachelet condemns ‘horrors’ against civilians
Nearly two months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Friday condemned the “horrors” committed against civilians, while the World Health Organization warned that it feared the worst in devastated areas in the east and south of the country.
In an appeal to all parties to the conflict to respect internationally agreed rules of war, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement that “international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside”.
Russian armed forces had “indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas,” she added, “killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, actions that may amount to war crimes.”
Delivering the High Commissioner’s statement, UN rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani warned that there was deep concern about the current new phase of the war, amid a massive military build-up and clashes in the east of the country.
“There already has been a bloodbath,” Ms. Shamdasani said. “We’re talking about 2,343 – at least 2,343 civilians - who have been killed and we’re talking about the summary execution of more than 300 civilians. We are very concerned, we’re very worried about what’s coming next.”
Evidence is mounting that war crimes have been committed, for the most part by Russian forces, the OHCHR spokesperson maintained.
“These include indiscriminate shelling and bombing of populated areas, summary execution of civilians. As I said though, the vast majority of violations by far are attributable to the Russian forces, so if we just look at the civilian casualties, 92.3 per cent of what we have managed to record were recorded in Government-controlled territories, so attributable to the Russian armed forces.”
During a mission to Bucha on 9 April, UN human rights officers documented the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians.
“Almost every resident in Bucha our colleagues spoke to told us about the death of a relative, a neighbour or even a stranger,” Ms. Shamdasani said, quoting the High Commissioner. “We know much more needs to be done to uncover what happened there and we also know Bucha is not an isolated incident.”
During its investigations, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU)
has received more than 300 allegations of killings of civilians in towns in the regions of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, all under the control of Russian armed forces in late February and early March.
Underscoring that the true death toll is almost certainly much higher than what has been confirmed to date, Ms. Shamdasani added that “the scale of summary executions of civilians in areas previously occupied by Russian forces” was also emerging.
“The preservation of evidence and decent treatment of mortal remains must be ensured, as well as the psychological and other relief for victims and their relatives.”
The desperate situation for civilians caught up in the fighting continues to alarm humanitarian agencies and their partners, including the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
To date, the agency has still been blocked from reaching some of the hardest-hit areas in the east where it reported on Friday that the health system “has all but collapsed”.
In Luhansk oblast, “nearly all health facilities and hospitals …are either damaged or destroyed”, said WHO spokesperson Bhanu Bhatnagar, speaking from Lviv in western Ukraine: “It’s absolutely essential that a safe passage is created quickly, we need a cessation of fighting for at least two days in order to move vital supplies in, but also to assess the health needs. We anticipate the worst.”
Ends
STORY: Ukraine Update – OHCHR, WHO
TRT: 1 min 52s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 22 April 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot, flag alley, UN Geneva.
- Medium shot, from the side, with podium speaker in the foreground, TV screen showing speakers to rear.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, OHCHR: “There already has been a bloodbath; we’re talking about 2,343 – at least 2,343 civilians - who have been killed and we’re talking about the summary execution of more than 300 civilians. We are very concerned, we’re very worried about what’s coming next.”
- Medium shot, TV screen on the floor showing speakers in the foreground, masked participant sitting in front of the laptop to rear.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, OHCHR: “There is evidence mounting of war crimes being committed and these include indiscriminate shelling and bombing of populated areas, summary execution of civilians. As I said though, the vast majority of violations by far are attributable to the Russian forces, so if we just look at the civilian casualties, 92.3 per cent of what we have managed to record were recorded in Government-controlled territories, so attributable to the Russian armed forces.”
- Close-up, from the back of a participant, laptop showing the speaker in foreground; TV screen showing the speaker in background, out of focus.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson, OHCHR: “The scale of summary executions of civilians in areas previously occupied by Russian forces are also emerging. The preservation of evidence and decent treatment of mortal remains must be ensured, as well as the psychological and other relief for victims and their relatives.”
- Medium shot, side angle, TV screen showing the speaker in foreground, podium speaker to rear.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): Bhanu Bhatnagar (Zoom from Lviv), spokesperson, WHO: “It’s absolutely essential that a safe passage is created quickly, we need a cessation of fighting for at least two days in order to move vital supplies in, but also to assess the health needs. We anticipate the worst.”
- Wide shot, podium speaker seated and following the press briefing in the middle, TV screens on both left and right side of showing speakers.
- Medium shot, two masked participants listening to the press briefing.
- Medium shot, side angle of two masked participants in foreground, TV screen showing the speaker in background.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
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“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
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Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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