Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am very honoured to be able to speak at this hearing. I was honoured to be a part of a women's delegation that came to Canada just five weeks ago. I met with some of you, whom I recognize.
First of all, I would like to thank you for your help and the help of the Canadian people. It's very important for us. It's very important that Prime Minister Trudeau visited Ukraine a few days ago.
I would also like to thank the chair of the subcommittee, Ali Ehsassi, for coming to Ukraine a few days ago as well, having the opportunity of witnessing the results of atrocities by the Russian army in Ukraine and visiting the Kyiv region and the small villages near Kyiv that were occupied for more than a month.
Also, I would like to thank all of the members of both the Senate and the House of Commons for voting for and supporting the resolution about genocide in Ukraine, because we really do think and feel that it is genocide.
But we haven't won yet, as you know. The war is ongoing. Right now, it has been 75 days of ongoing war and ongoing atrocities in Ukraine, with violations of human rights every day. It has been a full-scale invasion for 75 days, but the war has been ongoing for eight years. It started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. We have to understand that, if the world had been strong enough to answer to Putin in 2014, if he had been stopped then, we probably would not be facing such atrocities right now.
The Russian army, its political leadership in the Kremlin and Putin himself are responsible for numerous war crimes in Ukraine—thousands of war crimes. They have crossed every red line since this full-scale invasion: shelling and bombing civilians; torturing civilians and executing them; raping women and children; establishing “filtration camps”; deportation; and kidnapping, especially activists, journalists and representatives of local governance and local councils.
I can give you a few facts, and then I will be ready, of course, to answer your questions.
We can't even say what the estimated number of civilians is who have been killed since February 24, but in only the Kyiv region, the police discovered over 1,200 bodies. These people were tortured. They were shot to death. Bodies were found with their hands tied.
There were witnesses of women who were raped in front of children, and children who were raped in front of their mothers. Some schools were turned into torturing camps. We have a witness from Katiuzhanka, the principal of one of the schools, who said that in their basement there was a torture camp, where at least a couple of thousand people were tortured and some of them were killed.
In Mariupol—you have probably heard the name of the city—we can't really say how many people died in Mariupol, but probably at least 20,000. We can't count them because we don't have access to the city right now. There have been mobile crematoriums working there to cover up the bodies and to cover the traces of these war crimes that were committed. There are also mass graves near Mariupol. We can see them from above.
Right now, the defenders of Mariupol are still in the Azovstal steel plant. Over 500 wounded soldiers are still there. The Russians will not let them go, despite all the rules of the Geneva Convention. We are working together with the United Nations, the Red Cross and third party countries to get them out. We really hope for your support, as well as your political leadership in this process to get these people out.
I can send additional information, both in English and French, about the biggest cases of shelling civilians. You've probably heard about the Kramatorsk railway station, where 59 people died and over 100 were wounded. The maternity ward in Mariupol was bombed in March. At least one mother-to-be died, along with her unborn child. There are many other cases. You will read about them in the paper. In every case, someone loses their life. Families are losing their children, or children are losing their parents.
Another thing I would like to—