United Nations chief decries "massive" human rights violations in Ukraine

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered "the most massive violations of human rights" in the world today, the head of the United Nations said Monday, as the war pushed into its second year with no end in sight and tens of thousands dead.

The Russian invasion "has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a speech to the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Guterres said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented dozens of cases of conflict-related sexual violence against men, women and girls, and serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against prisoners of war. Hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions of civilians were also documented, he said.