Human Rights Watch presented its annual report reviewing human rights standards in nearly 100 countries. According to the report, Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February and ensuing atrocities quickly rose to "the top of the world’s human rights agenda in 2022."
After Ukrainian troops forced the Russian military’s withdrawal from Kyiv Oblast city of Bucha in late March, the UN found that at least 70 civilians had been the victims of unlawful killings, including summary executions, which are war crimes. "This pattern of Russian atrocity has been repeated countless times," the report said.
While the authors praise the response of Western countries in receiving Ukrainian refugees, they noted that “governments should reflect on where the situation would be if the international community had made a concerted effort to hold Putin to account much earlier – in 2014, at the onset of the war in eastern Ukraine."
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