GENEVA: Russia inflicted unimaginable suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full scale invasion of Ukraine begun in 2022, a new report by the United Nations Human Rights Office said on Friday.
“Their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk.
The Russian Mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters.
“In the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by the Russian Federation in 2022, children have been particularly affected by violations of international human rights law...including summary executions, arbitrary detention, conflict-related sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment,” the report said.
Five boys and two girls were summarily executed in 2022 and 2023, with the report noting that the willful killing of civilians was a war crime and a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.
Some children had to take part in military-patriotic training, including singing the Russian anthem, and to follow the Russian school curriculum — in violation of international humanitarian law.
Child deportation and transfer
The transfer of at least 200 children within Russian occupied territory and to Russia between February 2022 and December 2024 may amount to war crimes, the report stated.
Previously Moscow said it had been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia denounced the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
Russia failed to provide detailed information about the children to the Central Tracing Agency, thwarting families attempts to find them, the report said.
Some 50,000 people were reported missing in the war between Ukraine and Russia over the last year, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross in February.
More than 600 children were killed between Feb. 24, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2024 in Ukraine, including occupied territories, the UN Human Rights Office verified. At least 737,000 children had been internally displaced and a further 1.7 million were refugees.
UN condemns unimaginable suffering of Ukrainian children at hands of Russia
https://arab.news/ybb7a
UN condemns unimaginable suffering of Ukrainian children at hands of Russia
- ‘Their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial’
- Some 50,000 people were reported missing in the war between Ukraine and Russia over the last year
Philippines eyes closer cooperation on advanced defense tech with UAE
- Philippine-UAE defense agreement is Manila’s first with a Gulf country
- Philippines says new deal will also help modernize the Philippine military
MANILA: The Philippines is seeking stronger cooperation with the UAE on advanced defense technologies under their new defense pact — its first such deal with a Gulf country — the Department of National Defense said on Friday.
The Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation was signed during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this week, which also saw the Philippines and the UAE signing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, marking Manila’s first free trade pact with a Middle Eastern nation.
The Philippines-UAE defense agreement “seeks to deepen cooperation on advanced defense technologies and strengthen the security relations” between the two countries, DND spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arsenio Andolong said in a statement.
The MoU “will serve as a platform for collaboration on unmanned aerial systems, electronic warfare, and naval systems, in line with the ongoing capability development and modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” he added.
It is also expected to further military relations through education and training, intelligence and security sharing, and cooperation in the fields of anti-terrorism, maritime security, and peacekeeping operations.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described security and defense as “very promising fields” in Philippine-UAE ties, pointing to Abu Dhabi being the location of Manila’s first defense attache office in the Middle East.
The UAE is the latest in a growing list of countries with defense and security deals with the Philippines, which also signed a new defense pact with Japan this week.
“I would argue that this is more significant than it looks on first read, precisely because it’s the Philippines’ first formal defense cooperation agreement with a Gulf state. It signals diversification,” Rikard Jalkebro, associate professor at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, told Arab News.
“Manila is widening its security partnerships beyond its traditional circles at a time when strategic pressure is rising in the South China Sea, and the global security environment is (volatile) across regions.”
Though the MoU is not an alliance and does not create mutual defense obligations, it provides a “framework for the practical stuff that matters,” including access, training pathways, procurement discussions and structured channels” for security cooperation, he added.
“For the UAE, the timing also makes sense, seeing that Abu Dhabi is no longer only a defense buyer; it’s increasingly a producer and exporter, particularly in areas like UAS (unmanned aerial systems) and enabling technologies. That opens a new lane for Manila to explore capability-building, technology transfer, and industry-to-industry links,” Jalkebro said.
The defense deal also matters geopolitically, as events in the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region have ripple effects on global stability and commerce.
“So, a Philippines–UAE defense framework can be read as a pragmatic hedge, strengthening resilience and options without formally taking sides,” Jalkebro said.
