Briefing ambassadors within the Safety Council, Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-Basic for Europe within the Division of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), renewed the decision for an instantaneous ceasefire and a return to diplomacy to finish the devastation.
“Ukrainian individuals have endured practically three-and-a-half years of unimaginable horrors, demise, devastation and destruction. They urgently want reduction from this nightmare,” he stated.
He confused that diplomacy, not combating, must escalate within the coming days and weeks.
“Diplomacy that results in actual, tangible, verifiable and lasting outcomes that might be felt by the long-suffering individuals on the bottom,” he added, reiterating that the UN stays able to help all efforts towards a simply, lasting peace in step with the UN Constitution and worldwide regulation.
Brutal assaults proceed
Mr. Jenča described the “brutal” scale of the newest assaults.
In a single day between 30 and 31 July, a large-scale Russian aerial assault on Kyiv killed no less than 31 individuals – together with 5 kids – and injured 159 others, 16 of them kids. It marked the best variety of youngster accidents in a single evening within the capital for the reason that invasion started in February 2022.
The strikes broken 27 areas throughout 4 districts of Kyiv, together with a college, a preschool, a paediatric hospital wing, and a college constructing.
“A complete part of an condo block was additionally reportedly destroyed, leaving many trapped beneath the burning rubble,” stated Mr. Jenča.
Humanitarian employees, together with UN businesses and native companions, responded swiftly, delivering shelter kits, emergency psychosocial help and authorized counselling to affected households.
Strikes past Kyiv
Past Kyiv, assaults have been reported throughout no less than seven areas – Vinnytsia, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Cherkasy and Chernihiv – with a complete of no less than 120 civilian casualties in a single evening.
In Donetsk, two individuals have been reportedly killed and 10 injured; in Kharkiv, one particular person was killed and 7 injured. Further casualties have been confirmed in Sumy, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
In Kamianske, a hospital assault left three useless – together with a pregnant girl – and 22 injured, lots of them medical workers. In Novoplatonivka, Kharkiv area, six have been killed whereas ready for humanitarian support.
“These persevering with horrendous assaults are merely unacceptable,” stated Mr. Jenča.
The UN human rights workplace, OHCHR, reviews that for the reason that begin of the full-scale invasion thorugh June this yr, greater than 13,580 civilians – together with 716 kids – have been killed, and over 34,000 injured.
Casualties inside Russia
Mr. Jenča additionally famous civilian casualties inside Russia.
Between 25 and 29 July, Russian authorities reported assaults in Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Leningrad and Rostov areas, leading to no less than six deaths and a number of accidents.
Whereas the UN can not confirm these reviews, Mr. Jenča expressed concern and reiterated that “assaults on civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited beneath worldwide regulation and should cease instantly – wherever they happen.”
Abuses towards POWs
He additionally detailed new allegations of abuse towards Ukrainian prisoners of conflict (POWs).
Based on OHCHR interviews with practically 140 lately launched male POWs, “practically all…reported having been subjected to torture or ill-treatment,” together with beatings, electrical shocks, and suffocation.
OHCHR additionally documented credible reviews of 106 executions of Ukrainian troopers in Russian custody.
