Russia subjects Ukrainian POWs to rape, beatings and electric shocks – UN

The Russian authorities regularly subject Ukrainian prisoners of war to torture and ill treatment at all stages of captivity.

Source: report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Details: According to the report, the Russians systematically torture and abuse Ukrainian prisoners of war. 169 out of 174 interviewed POWs  said such abuse was widespread during interrogations, transfer to detention facilities and daily internment procedures, according to OHCHR. Their testimonies were confirmed by other sources of information, the report says.

Torture includes beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, suffocation, prolonged strenuous positions, forced physical exertion, sleep deprivation, mock executions and threats. 

Quote: "The occupying authorities in Kherson repeatedly subjected a detained man to beatings, suffocation, waterboarding, electric shocks, including to genitals, and threats of castration after his apprehension in September 2022. They also raped the man anally with a metal object and simultaneously administered electric shocks to his anus and genitals."

Details: The UN emphasises that many of the documented cases of torture or ill treatment involved employees of different state institutions, often indicating a significant level of coordination between them.

In addition, the report states that prison guards were aware of such treatment and could prevent it. 

OHCHR also mentions public calls by Russian officials for the ill-treatment and execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Background:

• The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has uncovered new evidence of Russia's torture of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war in the occupied territories. The findings indicate that Russian forces are operating in a coordinated manner across all torture chambers and regularly commit acts of sexual violence.
• A Ukrainian told the media how the Russians held him captive for more than a year: in a Kherson torture chamber, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, and in a penal colony and detention centre in Russia. The Russians chained him up and stretched his body in the shape of a star, and the interrogation was accompanied by physical violence, threats and stun gun beatings.
• On 17 September 2024, a Telegram channel published a post about the alleged execution of a Ukrainian defender by representatives of the Russian Armed Forces in the town of Novohrodivka. The published photos show that the Russians stabbed the Ukrainian soldier with a sword with the inscription reading For Kursk.
• On 13 September 2024, Brenda J. Hollis, Head of Investigations into International Crimes Committed in Ukraine at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), along with her team and members from the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, inspected the torture chambers set up by the Russian military during the occupation of Kharkiv Oblast.

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