Ukrainian prisoners report severe torture in Russian captivity

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) stated on Wednesday, stating that all Ukrainian military personnel and civilians who returned from Russian captivity as part of a prisoner exchange were tortured in Russia.

HRMMU reported that, since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has conducted interviews with 600 released Ukrainian prisoners. The statement indicated that the latest respondents were released on 31 May.

HRMMU stated that "every single interviewee from this recent exchange has given accounts of torture, from brutal beatings to prolonged stress positions, to electric shocks on genitals and to dog attacks".

The mission highlighted that torture was applied to entire groups of prisoners. They encountered it, among other times, upon entering the prisoner camp.

"(…) Ws had to walk between rows of guards who beat them with police batons or tasered them. Exhausting physical exercises and humiliation, such as forcing POW to memorize and sing Russian patriotic songs, also continued to be part of the daily routines," the report noted.

Additionally, the interviewed Ukrainians spoke of the constant hunger they experienced in Russia and the lack of proper medical care. "Many interviewees described feeling constantly hungry in captivity and being deprived of proper medical care for prolonged periods. Combined with poor hygienic conditions, this often caused POWs to lose significant body weight and contract skin diseases; some POWs lost several teeth. These accounts were consistent with HRMMU's own observations, with the interviewees' physical condition matching their testimonies," the statement emphasized.

HRMMU also conducted interviews with 388 Russian prisoners who Ukraine captured. They were surveyed in prisoner-of-war camps.

"About half provided detailed accounts of torture or ill-treatment at transit locations after their evacuation from the battlefield. They described severe beatings, including with wooden mallets, as well as electric shocks. The torture ceased upon their arrival at official places of internment," the UN mission recommended.

26 June is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, established by the UN General Assembly in 1997.