The UN has put civilian casualties in Ukraine since Russia invaded at more than 100, including children, while 400,000 have fled the fighting as the commissioner for human rights said the world was at a “tipping point”.
“The military attack on Ukraine is putting at risk countless lives,” said Michelle Bachelet, high commissioner for human rights, at the 49th session of the council in Geneva.
The UN’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 102 killed in the conflict from Thursday morning to Sunday night, including seven children, with 304 injured.
“Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and air strikes,” Bachelet said on Monday. “The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher.
“Meanwhile, millions of civilians, including vulnerable and older people, are forced to huddle in different forms of bomb shelters, such as underground stations, to escape explosions,” she said.
As many as 422,000 people have fled Ukraine since Thursday morning, with many more internally displaced, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported.
Monday’s council session, Bachelet said, takes place at a time that calls for “strong and visionary leadership”.
“Throughout history, there have been moments of profound gravity, that cut the course of events between a ‘before’ — and a very different, more harmful, ‘after’,” she said. “We are at such a tipping point.”
