UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC 62 - Human Rights in Ukraine

Senior Visa President Muchas Gracias distinguished delegates Today is a day of mourning in Kiev.

Russia's horrifying attack in the early hours of Thursday killed at least 30 civilians and injured at least 99 more.

It is one of the deadliest attacks on Kiev city since the Russian Federation's full scale invasion of Ukraine, and yet another tragic reminder of why this senseless war must end.

Instead of moving closer to to its peace.

Civilians are enduring more destruction, pain and suffering.

Between 1:00 December 2025 and 31 May 2026, my office verified that at least one 1270 civilians were killed and 6850 injured in Ukraine.

This represents a 40% increase compared to the same period last year.

The real toll is likely higher.

In Ukraine, 96% of casualties occurred in territory controlled by the government.

This spike is largely due to the Russian Federation's use of long range weapons and drones.

For example, on 13 and 14 May this year, Russian armed forces launched more than 1500 drones and missiles across 8 regions of Ukraine and Kiev city, killing 27 civilians and injuring at least 83.

There have also been civilian casualties in territory occupied by the Russian Federation.

On 22 May, 21 civilians were killed and others injured when an educational complex was struck in occupied Starobilsk in Luhansk region during attack in the city by Ukrainian Armed forces.

Russian authorities have reported that between 1:00 December 2025 and 31 May, twenty, 26205 civilians were killed and 1302 injured in 27 regions in the Russian Federation.

My office has not been able to verify these casualties and I repeat my call on the to the Russian authorities to facilitate access by my office for independent verification.

The situation is also dire on both sides of the front line, where short range drones drone attacks caused a 57% increase in civilian casualties compared with the same.

12 months earlier.

Some 318 civilians were killed and more than 2000 people were injured in territory controlled by the government of Ukraine.

Drones have struck clearly marked humanitarian vehicles and facilities, impeding people trying to flee and the delivery of humanitarian aid in occupied territory.

Thousands of civilians are trapped along the front line in Herzon region, facing severe risks to their lives, food shortages and lack of healthcare due to drone strikes and landmines.

A local ceasefire is urgently needed so people can move to safer areas.

Since mid November 2025, my office has verified that Russian forces have executed at least 20 captured Ukrainian servicemen.

During the reporting period, my office interviewed 129 released Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Virtually all of them provided detailed accounts of torture or other I'll treatment during their captivity, including sexual violence.

This is consistent with our previous findings of widespread and systematic torture and I'll treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian captivity.

Around half the prisoners of war captured by Ukraine interviewed by my office describe torture or other I'll treatment, predominantly in transit facilities before transferred to official detention facilities.

The prohibition of torture is absolute.

The use of torture against prisoners of war must end immediately, and those responsible must be held to account.

Mr Vice President, last winter was the coldest in Ukraine for 15 years.

Between October 2025 and March 2026, Russian armed forces systematically and repeatedly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, particularly facilities providing heating for urban areas, as temperatures dropped.

These attacks left hundreds of thousands of civilians across the country without electricity, heating, and hot water, sometimes for weeks.

As outside temperatures fell below -20°C, water supplies were cut, schools were closed, and access to healthcare was disrupted.

Older people and people with disabilities were often unable to leave their apartments because elevators were not operational, further isolating them and preventing them from reaching shelters during air raids.

The scale and scope of the Russian Federation's attacks suggest they were intended to disable Ukraine's energy network as a whole, rather than strike specific military objectives.

Treating Ukraine's entire energy infrastructure as a military objective is incompatible with international humanitarian law.

Ukrainian Armed forces also attacked electricity and heating infrastructure in the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation on at least 7 occasions so far this year, causing temporary outages, according to Russian authorities.

My office could not fully verify the damage or the impact of these attacks on civilians.

Mr Vice President, the Russian authorities continued to violate the laws of occupation.

This includes compelling people in territory they occupy to swear allegiance to the Russian Federation, forcing people to join the Russian Armed forces, carrying out forcible transfers and deportations, and imposing their legal and governance system.

Restrictions on freedom of expression continue.

Courts issued arrest warrants and fines against more than 160 people for for expressing anti war views or pro Ukrainian sentiment.

The occupying authority have have also accelerated efforts to seize private property.

As of December 2025, our office recorded that nearly 40,000 residential properties were at risk of confiscation.

This war has inflicted immense human suffering and destabilised the region.

1 Recent study estimates it has caused more than 2,000,000 military casualties.

It is steadily poisoning air, groundwater and soil, including that used for agriculture.

We know that it will have a lasting, devastating impact on the environment inherited by future generations.

Beyond the battlefield, the war continues to drive up food and energy costs, put pressure on economies, intensify political tensions and turbocharge spending on weapons.

It is making our world less safe and any risk of further escalation needs to be averted.

I urge renewed efforts to negotiate the sustainable peace grounded in human rights and in line with the United Nations Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.

Accountability for all these horrific violations is essential.

Protecting human rights is key to building the trust and confidence required for any sustainable peace and can provide a vital opening for meaningful dialogue.

This war is cutting deep physical and psychological wounds.

Human rights need to guide efforts to secure lasting peace.

[Other language spoken]

President, Ukraine thanks the Office of the High Commissioner for the update and expresses its sincere appreciation to the Human Rights Monitoring Mission for its indispensable work, and thanks for mentioning the morning day today in Kiev.

Every reporting period confirms the same painful reality.

[Other language spoken]

Russia's war is not only a military assault against Ukraine.

[Other language spoken]

Over the past months, Russian missiles and drones have continued to kill civilians on an almost daily basis.

Homes, hospitals, schools, energy infrastructure and humanitarian facilities remain among their targets.

Yet behind every statistic there are people who whose lives have been permanently changed.

On 15th June, Russia struck the Kiev Pitchersk Lavra, one of the Ukrainian's oldest spiritual centres and UNESCO World Heritage site.

A drone hit the Dormition Cathedral, the heart of this thousandth year old monastery.

This was not merely another attack on a building, it was an attack on the memory of a nation.

Russia continues to destroy churches, museums, libraries and cultural heritage because it seeks not only to occupy territory, but to erase the identity, identity of the people who have lived here for centuries.

Dear High Commissioner, your report also reminds us that occupation is not only measured by checkpoints and soldiers, it is measured by fear becoming part of everyday life, when going outside is dangerous, when food, water and medicine becomes a matter of survival, when your own home no longer feels safe, when women are forced to hide their appearance out of fear of sexual violence.

Occupation is when leaving your home may cost you life.

Today, thousands of civilians in Oleski and Holla Pristine remain trapped between Russian positions, mines and constant drone attacks.

Families struggle to obtain food, drinking water and medicines.

Elderly people cannot reach hospitals.

Children grow up without safety, without normality, and sometimes without hope.

[Other language spoken]

Meanwhile, millions of Ukrainians living under temporary occupation continue to face relentless persecution.

Russia suppresses any expression of Ukrainian identity, punishes those who oppose the occupation, forces children into militarised education, precious families to embrace Russian propaganda and seeks to reshape an entire generation through fear and indoctrination.

This is not governance, it is an attempt to erase a nation.

And for those taking into Russian captivity, the nightmare only deepens.

Russia has turned torture into an instrument of state policy, and Ukrainian prisoners of war remain the most vulnerable in this system.

They endorse starvation, humiliation, physical and psychological abuse designed not only to extract information but to destroy human dignity itself.

Dear colleagues, these crimes are committed because Russia believes that time will normalise them.

It believes that repeated attacks against civilians will become ordinary, the torture will be reduced to another statistic and that occupation will be accepted as reality.

[Other language spoken]

Ukraine calls upon the international community to maintain pressure on the aggressor, support the work of international accountability mechanisms, and insists on full, safe and unhindered access for international monitors to all temporary occupied territories of Ukraine.

Because justice delayed is not only justice denied.

For those still living under occupation, for those still imprisoned, and for those who will never return home, justice is hope.

[Other language spoken]

HRC 62 - Human Rights in Ukraine - 03 July 2026