The United Nations on Thursday said Ukraine's forces had indiscriminately shelled residents while pro-Russian insurgents and Kiev battalions had summarily killed civilians in what may have constituted "war crimes". The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) study painted a bloody picture of inhumane treatment of captives and non-combatants as well as the engagement of multiple-rocket systems never intended for use in urban areas.
It particularly pointed the finger of blame at rebel groups within the self-proclaimed "people's republics" of Lugansk and Donetsk - a separatist region in Ukraine's eastern rustbelt that Kiev says is backed up by Russia. The 26-month revolt against the pro-Western government in Kiev has killed nearly 9,500 people and plunged Moscow's ties with the West to a post-Cold war low that has complicated the resolution of other urgent matters such as the Syrian war.
The Kremlin persistently denies either plotting or backing the insurgency in order to keep its western neighbour - the largest of the former Soviet republics outside Russia - within its historic sphere of influence. The exhaustive study into the Ukrainian conflict by OHCHR was conducted between January 2014 and May of this year.
"OHCHR recorded executions of members of Ukrainian forces and elements of armed groups who had surrendered... mainly in 2014 and during the first half of 2015," the report said. "OHCHR also recorded a considerable number of alleged summary executions and killings of civilians who were not taking part in hostilities, mostly in 2014 and in early 2015."
The series of alleged crimes committed by Kiev's troops included one in which two suspected rebels were kept in a dry well and then killed by "a drunken soldier" who threw a grenade down the shaft. Such cases are "recognised as a war crime in an armed conflict," the OHCHR said.
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