Supporting justice and accountability in Ukraine

Shortly after a deadly attack hit a children’s hospital in Kyiv in July 2024, a team of UN Human Rights officers and experts were busy at the site, interviewing medical staff, parents and residents, meticulously monitoring and documenting the realities of war. As the team carried out its work, stunned-looking children sat in hospital beds set up in parks and streets, their bodies still connected to medical drips, while smoke rose from rubble.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation is inflicting immense suffering on the people of Ukraine. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives. Relentless attacks continue to destroy homes, hospitals and schools. Entire neighbourhoods and villages have been erased. Millions were forced to flee their homes, tearing families apart. Summary executions, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and sexual violence have occurred with impunity.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) was established in 2014 to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the country. Since 24 February 2022, the mission has intensified its work of documenting violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed by all parties to the conflict, aiming to protect human rights and promote accountability and justice.

With the invasion well into its third year, Danielle Bell, the Head of Mission, believes that the continued monitoring and documentation of human rights violations will help ensure that accountability and justice become a reality one day.

The mission’s 75 staff members meet daily with people who are directly affected by the conflict, said Bell, to offer a “firsthand, credible and reliable account of human rights violations and civilian protection trends in the entire country, including in occupied territory.”

“We're the only UN organization with a monitoring presence near the front line, which means we meet daily with people who are directly affected by the conflict.“

DANIELLE BELL, HEAD OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MISSION IN UKRAINE

Through its diligent work of documenting and producing evidence-based reports on the human rights situation, the mission supports accountability mechanisms and facilitates victims' and survivors’ access to justice.

Behind every report there are human stories, Bell points out.

“I did not want to leave”

Viktor, 83, was among the thousands of people evacuated from the northern Kharkiv region during an offensive by Russian armed forces in May 2024. Residents described having to shelter in basements with no electricity for days or even weeks on end amid intense artillery shelling and aerial bombardments.

Viktor said his house, just 2 km from the border, was destroyed by a bomb, which also injured one of his sons. Some fled with little more than a few bags of clothes, some carrying their pets. Many women arrived at government displacement centres wearing sandals and light summer dresses.

“I stayed because it was my house. I did not want to leave,” said Viktor at an aid centre in Kharkiv city.

Older people and people with disabilities face special difficulties when forced to evacuate, but Viktor managed to reach safety with the help of his granddaughter. “Leaving was a difficult decision. I am old and I have a hard time walking. I don’t know where I am going to live now.”

During the offensive, HRMMU teams travelled to the field to conduct extensive interviews with people who had been evacuated from frontline areas.

“I only took a suitcase with me”

Lina’s eyes well up when she reminisces about her old life. “We had everything: good salaries, apartments, nice weather,” she said.

Lina fled the city of Enerhodar, in southeastern Ukraine, after it was occupied by Russian forces.

“I only took a suitcase with me. I had to leave my bed-ridden mother with a nurse and my brother,” said Lina.

Her mother died in March 2023, but Lina is determined to keep the last promise she made to her.

“I promised her that I would come back,” she said. “We thought it was going to be some months, but it has been more than two years.”

Lina, who works in the city of Zaporizhzhia helping other Ukrainians who have fled occupied areas of Ukraine, described how residents there were under increasing pressure to obtain Russian passports to facilitate daily life.

“Health services are not being provided for people with Ukrainian passports, so people are being forced to obtain Russian passports,” she said, adding that older persons and people with disabilities are the most affected.

A recent HRMMU report detailed measures taken by the Russian Federation to apply Russian language, citizenship, laws, and education curricula in occupied territories of Ukraine, while suppressing expressions of Ukrainian culture and identity.

“We had a beautiful house”

“We had a beautiful house, with a big garden and bees, and we made our own honey. We were respected in our communities. But we had to leave everything behind. Why did this happen to us?” asked Polina.

Polina, 67, and her husband Oleksandr, 65, are Ukrainian refugees living in Moldova. Both Polina and Oleksandr have heart problems, and left their village in Mykolaiv region, in southern Ukraine, after hiding in their basement with their grandchildren for five days while the village was being shelled by Russian forces.

“The sounds of the bombs were very scary. It was horrible. A lot of buildings were destroyed. A bomb fell 40 metres from our house. We could hear the bombs from the basement. We thought the house could become our grave if a bomb fell on top of us,” said Polina, a former teacher.

Fearing for their health, the couple decided to flee in April 2024. They now live in a small apartment in the capital Chisinau with their oldest grandson, Andrii, 16, who does repair jobs to help pay rent.

“We came with no clothes for summer. We don’t know what will happen to us. Our grandson is here to help us, but we cannot afford the rent,” said Oleksandr, a former electrician.

Millions of civilians have had to leave everything behind. Many are traumatised and need support, particularly vulnerable populations. A referral program by the UN Human Rights Office in Moldova that assists vulnerable refugees from Ukraine ensured that Polina and Oleksandr received medicines supplied by a local NGO.

Polina and Oleksandr, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this October, say there has not been a single day in which they didn't dream of returning to their orchard, where they grew apricots, apples, peaches and plums and raised cows.

“We miss our sons and grandchildren,” said Polina, showing a picture on her mobile of her smiling 14-months granddaughter.

“The fields are contaminated with explosives”

Few places have been as devasted as Ternovi Pody and its surrounding villages. There used to be 150 residents in Ternovi Pody, but today there are only eight.

This once-thriving farming settlement, in the southern region of Mykolaiv, became a fierce battleground during the first months of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Most of the villages are now ghost towns, their houses and schools turned to rubble.

“When we came back six months ago everything was destroyed,” said Oleksandr, 55.

Oleksandr and his wife, Larysa, recently rebuilt the roof and are busy replanting their garden despite hearing explosions almost every day from the front line, 30 km away. Missiles sometimes fly over the area, fired from the opposite bank of the Dnieper River, and the buzz of military drones is constant.

“The fields are contaminated with explosives. Every day we find explosives and ammunitions near the house,” said Larysa, 58.

One elderly neighbour said she missed the village’s children. "We had schools. Now the children are gone," she said.

Despite not having electricity, Oleksandr and Larysa are determined to stay.

“I was born in this house and I want to live again in it,” he said.

UN Human Rights staff travel near the front lines and meet daily with people in communities directly affected by the conflict.