Russia has created an "atmosphere of fear" in the occupied territories - the UN report

Such a conclusion was reached by experts of the Special Monitoring Mission of the UN Human Rights in a thematic report, which was published on Wednesday, March 20. The report was the basis of more than 2,300 interviews with victims and witnesses of Russian occupation. The document describes the actions of the Russian Federation for the imposition of Russian, citizenship, laws, judicial system and training programs.

The authors of the report write that the occupying power suppressed the manifestations of Ukrainian culture and identity, destroyed the Ukrainian management system, as well as administrative systems in these areas. "Russian troops also used force to suppress peaceful protests, restricted the freedom of expression, introduced strict control over the movement of residents and robbed houses and enterprises," the document reads.

People in the occupied territories were encouraged to bring each other, forcing them to be afraid of even their own friends and neighbors. According to the report, children were most affected, because in many schools Ukrainian curricula were replaced by Russian, and in the textbooks appeared narratives that justify the armed attack of the Russian Federation on Ukraine.

Residents of occupied areas were forced to receive passports of the Russian Federation, and those who refused the document were restricted in the movement, employment, access to medical services and social payments. Experts describe in detail the situation in areas liberated by the Armed Forces at the end of 2022. These are the Nikolaev and parts of Kharkiv and Kherson regions, to which the UN Human Rights Office has access.

"The invasion, occupation and further return of these territories to Ukraine left behind damaged houses and infrastructure, land, contaminated mines and explosive war vestiges, robbed resources, the collapse of the local economy and the injured, distrustful community," the report reads.

The authors of the report expressed anxiety that the too wide and fuzzy provision of the Criminal Code of Ukraine has led to criminal liability on charges of collaboration with the occupying authorities for actions to which the occupying power can be forced legally in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine congratulated the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in temporarily occupied territories and called on the international community to double the efforts in the fight against the impunity her victims. The foreign policy department added that the report is evidence of significant demographic changes that were possible due to the violent movement of the population.

"The mission has recorded the facts of the forced movement of Ukrainian children within the limits of the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia, as well as the illegal deportation of children to the Russian Federation or Belarus, in particular in institutions of institutional care and institutions for children with physical or intellectual violations," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.