Civilian infrastructure, men targeted in Ukraine war, say U.N. human rights experts

May 5 (UPI) -- Human rights experts detailed before the United Nations Security Council on Thursday a deteriorating situation in Ukraine, where Russian forces have attacked civilian infrastructure and forcibly disappeared Ukrainian men.

Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told the meeting via teleconference in New York that her team in areas around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv have documented Russian forces detaining, beating, summarily executing and in some cases abducting to Belarus and Russia local men they consider suspicious.

"My staff met with families who are searching for their missing male relatives, desperate to know where they are, if they are alive and if they can get them back," she said.

Her staff continues to document cases of possible enforced disappearances of local authority representatives, journalists, civil society activists, retired service men and the armed forces.

Of the 180 cases they've identified, up roughly 10 from last week, five have been found dead with eight being pro-Russian people in government-controlled areas of Ukraine.

Bachelet said her staff has heard of women being raped by Russian armed forces in locations under their control but they've also received allegations of sexual violence committed by both sides of the conflict.

Evidence of torture, ill-treatment and summary executions of prisoners of war committed by both Russia and Ukraine is surfacing, she said.

Martin Griffiths, the head of the U.N. humanitarian office, said apartment buildings, schools and hospitals in populated areas have been attacked with more 13 million people, including 7.7 million within the country, having become displaced due to the war.

"Destruction of civilian infrastructure has come to characterize this conflict," he said. "Lives have been uprooted, ripped apart and will never be the same again."

Though millions have fled conflict zone, many, including the elderly and disabled, have become stuck where they are, unable to flee areas under attack or gather supplies, he said.

Echoing Bachelet, Griffiths said the threat of gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, sexual exploitation and abuse and human trafficking in the country, "has risen hugely" since the start of the war.

"Allegations of sexual violence against women, girls, men and boys are mounting," he said.

Civilians have further been put at risk by roads that have been heavily contaminated with ordinances that prevent them from leaving and humanitarian aid from entering the conflict areas, he said.

Since the war began on Feb. 24, 3,280 civilians have been killed and another 3,451 have been injured, according to United Nations data.

Bachelet explained that the actual number of casualties is believed to be considerably higher and that they are the result of the use of explosive weapons such as shelling and missile and airstrikes on populated areas.

A cease-fire, which the United Nations has been lobbying for, even for one day would save the lives of 50 civilians, prevent between 30 and 70 others from being injured, including a dozen who would have been made disabled by the fighting, she said.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the meeting of his recent trip to Ukraine and Russia in search of achieving a humanitarian victory in the war that did secure a deal for the safe evacuation of some 500 people from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

He told the meeting that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a day prior and said that the U.N. will continue to scale up humanitarian operations.

"The war on Ukraine is senseless in its scope, ruthless in its dimensions and limitless in its potential for global harm," he said. "The cycle of death, destruction, dislocation and disruption must stop. It is high time to united and end this war."