The scale of the devastation Russia has caused in Ukraine will be felt in the rights of generations to come, its High Commissioner said today UN Human Rights Volker Turk.

“The war in Ukraine has resulted in civilian casualties and destruction on a staggering scale”Turk said during his speech at the Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

“Ukrainians’ rights will suffer for generations to come, and the war’s impact on fuel and food prices, as well as geopolitical tensions, are punishing people in all regions of the world.” he emphasized.

“The fact that such damage could be inflicted again around the world by a war in Europe is a betrayal of the promises of change” given after the Second World War, he added.

Turk also expressed his concern about the trends observed in Russia.

He cited the closure of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the banning of Moscow’s oldest human rights organization, the Helsinki Observatory, as “a new sign of the end of the Russian public space.”

“Continuous pro-war messages in the public media fuel stereotypes and fuel hatred and violence,” he said.

He pointed out that more than 180 criminal investigations have been opened in Russia on charges of defamation of the armed forces, with a journalist and a parliamentarian among those already convicted.

“As of December, any person or entity deemed to be ‘under foreign influence’ – a vague designation – can be labeled a ‘foreign agent’ and subject to numerous restrictions,” write down.

He also referred to legislation to suppress it “propaganda of non-traditional relations”, which extends to any information about sexual minorities.