2024-03-15 19:22:34
Ukrainian servicemen have been tortured for months while in Russian captivity, DPA reported, citing a UN report published today detailing the prisoners’ suffering.
The ill-treatment is “appalling”, systemic and widespread, the UN Human Rights Council said. Prisoners of war were beaten or tortured with electric shocks, sometimes applied to the genitals, the report said.
The document contains a description of a man whose tailbone, collarbone and teeth were broken while held captive. He told UN experts that he was beaten so badly that his anus bled. In his desperation, the man tried to kill himself. After his release from prison, he had to undergo 36 operations.
Prisoners of war remain in prison between 9 and 15 months on Russian and Ukrainian territory, the report says.
“Victims’ accounts reveal merciless, brutal treatment, causing severe pain and suffering for almost the entire period of their detention, with a clear disregard for human dignity, resulting in long-lasting physical and mental trauma,” the document says.
Victims say they were left to starve and resorted to eating maggots, soap, paper and scraps of dog food, leading to drastic weight loss, the report said.
The commission said torture by the Russian military and prison officials was a war crime. The UN document describes torture and sexual crimes against Ukrainians. In one of the cases, a 42-year-old pregnant woman and her 17-year-old son’s girlfriend were raped by two Russian soldiers.
The commission defined the ongoing shelling of civilian buildings and the killing of civilians in Ukraine by the Russian military as a violation of international humanitarian law, writes BTA.