Khaled Khiari tells Council mid-April strikes in Ukraine drove civilian deaths, urges ceasefire and UN access to detainees

Mr. Khaled Khiari told the Council on Friday that recent fighting in Ukraine has escalated sharply and produced mounting civilian casualties and widespread damage to infrastructure and cultural sites. "We have seen an alarming escalation of fighting," he said, recounting aerial strikes across multiple regions and saying the violence persisted despite limited truce initiatives.

Khiari noted that on 9 April the Russian Federation announced a 32-hour Easter truce from 11 to 12 April after Ukraine proposed a pause; Ukraine said it would reciprocate, he said, but the pause "was not respected," and hostilities near front lines continued over the holiday weekend. He described three consecutive nights of Russian aerial strikes between 13 and 16 April that "resulted in dozens of civilians killed and injured," and called the night from 15 to 16 April the deadliest attack so far this year, with strikes reported in Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

Citing the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,…