The United Nations voiced alarm Wednesday at a recent surge in alleged Russian executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war, saying it had verified 68 cases since the start of the war.
"I call on the Russian authorities to halt the summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war," Nada Al-Nashif, the deputy UN rights chief told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"Summary executions constitute a war crime," she said, urging Russia to "condemn such acts, and to prosecute those responsible".
Presenting a report on developments in the war-torn country between September and November last year, Al-Nashif said she was "deeply concerned by a significant increase in credible allegations of executions of Ukrainian military personnel captured by Russian armed forces".
The UN rights office, she said, had recorded 62 alleged executions of Ukrainian PoWs in 19 separate incidents during the period, including five so far that it had managed to verify.
Overall, since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, the office had "verified the execution of 68 Ukrainian service personnel captured by Russian armed forces".
Over that period, the office had also verified the summary execution of 170 civilians in Russia-controlled areas, including in places of detention, she added.
"Accountability for these killings is essential," Al-Nashif said. "Instead, there is almost total impunity".
She told the council that her office had also continued documenting "the torture of prisoners of war at the hands of both Russian and Ukrainian armed forces โ a violation of international law".
Ukrainians held by Russian forces "described widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment, including severe beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, and prolonged solitary confinement", she said.
"Most reported being subjected to sexual violence, including rape and forced nudity."
Russian prisoners of war held by Ukraine had also complained of being subjected to "torture and ill-treatment", she said.
The Ukrainian abuse was not described as systematic, but she cited complaints of severe beatings, sexual violence and dog attacks, "mostly in places of transit before reaching official places of internment.