UN Finds Rising Human Rights Violations in Ukraine

“Primarily as a result of the actions of organized armed groups, the continuation of the rhetoric of hatred and propaganda fuels the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, with a potential of spiraling out of control,” the United Nations said in its second report on the issue in a month, which was released simultaneously in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and in Geneva.

The actions of and impunity enjoyed by armed groups remain the major factors worsening the situation for the protection of individual rights, the United Nations said, according to the New York Times.

“The report describes the deeply disturbing deterioration of the human rights situation in the east and south of the country,” the assistant secretary general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, said at a news conference in Kiev.

Mr. Simonovic said that at least 127 people had been killed “during violent clashes and the security and law enforcement operations in the east and south.”

“This is deeply disturbing,” he said, adding that a poisonous cycle of hate speech and violence seemed to have taken hold in the region.

Mr. Simonovic said that United Nations monitors had documented 112 cases of unlawful detention, with the condition and whereabouts of 49 people still unknown. “Such abuses clearly indicate the breakdown in law and order in this part of the country,” he said.

At a news conference in the Ukraine Hotel, just off the square where tens of thousands of Ukrainians staged months of protests that led to the ouster of President Viktor F. Yanukovych in March, Mr. Simonovic specifically called on the authorities to investigate the deaths of 48 people during unrest in the southern port city of Odessa on May 2.

Most independent analysts have blamed Russia for stirring up the unrest and instability in eastern Ukraine. Western governments have hit Moscow with limited economic sanctions and have threatened more severe measures if it continues to encourage separatism there.

The Italian foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, suggested on Friday that Russia could avoid further sanctions if it took demonstrable steps to restore stability in Ukraine, including a credible presidential election next weekend and productive negotiations on the country’s Constitution.

“We should concentrate on making the political process work rather than concentrating only on the sanctions,” Ms. Mogherini said at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where she met Friday with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

She added that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was “confident” that its election observers would be able to travel freely throughout the country during the polling on Sunday.

The report, compiled by a 34-member team of human rights monitors in Kiev and four other cities, named only the “Slovyansk self-defense unit” in the eastern city of Donetsk, but it reported several instances of attacks by other pro-Russian activists on rallies in support of Ukrainian unity and against lawlessness. “In most cases, local police did nothing to prevent violence, while in some cases it openly cooperated with the attackers,” the report said.

The United Nations expressed particular concern about increasing abductions and unlawful detentions in eastern Ukraine that appeared to be targeting journalists and to be controlled by the Slovyansk unit, reporting that by May 5 it was aware of 17 unlawful detentions in the Donetsk region alone.

Harassment of journalists and media outlets, and the increasing prevalence of hate speech, threatens freedom of speech and “is further fueling tensions,” the United Nations said. “Both these factors are deepening divisions between communities and exacerbating the crisis.”

The monitors said they also had credible reports that Ukraine’s security service had detained some pro-Russian activists and transferred them to Kiev in circumstances that amounted to enforced abductions.

Hate speech, harassment and attacks on candidates in the elections called by Ukraine’s interim government for May 25 could lead to more tension and violence, the report warned.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, in a statement released by her office in Geneva on Friday, urged those with influence to “do their utmost to rein in these groups who seem bent on tearing the country apart.”

The report called for an investigation into events in Odessa on May 2, when a fire in a trade union building occupied by pro-Russian activists killed more than 40 people. Pro-Russian groups have said the fire was started deliberately, and Russia’s Parliament condemned it as an act of genocide. Ukraine’s interim government said it might have been started by building occupants’ throwing fire bombs.

A total of 46 people died and 200 were wounded in the fire and in violent clashes between nationalists and pro-Russians in Odessa that day, and 13 people are still missing, the United Nations reported. Those events “hardened the resolve of those opposing the government and deepened divisions between communities,” it said.

In Crimea, the United Nations expressed serious concerns about the reported harassment of Tatars and residents who have not applied for Russian citizenship since Russia annexed Crimea last month. It cited warnings by the authorities in Crimea that protest actions by Tatars had violated Russian law.