The Ukrainian authorities in the city of Mariupolunder Russian control since mid-May 2022, denounced that Between 50 and 100 people disappear each week in torture chambers operated by Russian troops.
This was reported by the main adviser to the Mariupol Mayor’s Office, Petro Andriushchenko, who acknowledged that those Ukrainians who are arrested by the Russians, do not appear again, according to the news agency UNIAN.
Regarding the relatives, Andriushchenko regretted that in most cases, those who are looking for the missing they usually run the same fate later. “If you start looking (…) then you become the next one,” she said.
“How to find them is a question that remains unanswered for us,” lamented the Ukrainian official, who denounces that Russia does not draw up “even an approximate list” or report the number of those arrested.
“Unfortunately, most likely, only after Russia’s victory, evacuation and defeat will we be able to find and return home all Ukrainians,” Andryushchenko stated.
In this regard, the main adviser to the local government of Mariupol asserted that this situation can only be combated through warfare. “We see no other path than the military one when it comes to the recovery and vacation of Mariupol,” he said.
Mariupol, a port city of key importance in the war, has been a strategic target of Moscow since the start of the invasion, unleashed at the end of February 2022 by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
So, the town was shelled and shelled for weeks, causing enormous destruction and hundreds of deaths. kyiv claims that at least 25,000 people died during the fighting, including up to 7,000 who were buried under rubble.
Three types of crimes against humanity
On the other hand, the Commission of independent experts of the UN that investigates the Russo-Ukrainian war works to establish if the Russian forces have perpetrated in Ukraine abuses of three types that can be legally considered crimes against humanity.
Colombian academic and human rights activist Paul de Greiffone of the three commissioners of this investigative body, explained to EFE that the first type of crimes against humanity, which together with genocide are the most serious crimes recognized by international law, could have been committed by Russian troops by using “systematically torture against detainees, both military and Ukrainian civilians.”
Other actions that the Commission is investigating as possible crimes against humanity are “the thirteen waves” that Russia launched “against the electrical and thermal infrastructures” of Ukraine starting in October of last year and throughout last autumn and winter.
De Greiff recalls that the massive attacks against the Ukrainian electrical and thermal network were repeated on up to “13 different occasions.” “It was easy to determine, after the second, what the effects on the civilian population were going to be, so there is no doubt about its systematic nature or intentionality,” said the expert.
The city of Mariupol exemplifies the third category of atrocities that could constitute crimes against humanity. “The city was systematically attacked practically without respite, under a siege situation in which the civilian population was prevented from leaving and the entry of humanitarian aid was prevented,” deGreiff recalled.
The Colombian academic alluded to the difficulties of determining exactly what happened in that port on the Sea of Azov since Russia has not received a response to the Commission’s requests to visit the Russian Federation or the territories it occupies in Ukraine.
“If all these circumstances can be established, that would constitute a crime against humanity,” said De Greiff, who, along with his colleagues, has found elements to affirm that Russia has perpetrated many violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine and a large number of war crimes.
(With information from EuropaPress and EFE)
Source-www.infobae.com