‘Welcome to hell’: UN panel says Russian war crimes are widespread
Two years after Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine, United Nations investigators say they have discovered new evidence of systematic and widespread torture of Ukrainian prisoners held by Russian security forces.
A United Nations investigative committee on Friday detailed a series of what it described as Russian war crimes, including summary executions, sexual violence and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children to Russia. The committee paid particular attention to the “horrific” treatment of Ukrainian prisoners by Russian security services in detention centers in Russia and occupied Ukraine.
The committee will deliver results a report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva next week, detailing torture in four locations in Russia and seven in occupied Ukraine, reinforcing previous findings that the use of torture has become widespread and systematic.
“We are concerned about the extent, persistence and severity of the violations and crimes the commission investigated and the impact on victims,” Erik Mose, chairman of the three-member panel, said in a statement.
“The victims’ accounts reveal brutal, brutal treatment that inflicted severe pain and suffering for almost the entire duration of their detention,” the commission said, adding that this resulted in long-lasting physical and mental trauma.
The committee, established in 2022, said it previously raised concerns about arbitrary arrest and mistreatment by Ukrainian authorities of people suspected of collaborating with Russian authorities. But in this report, the fifth, the committee noted only two new cases of Ukrainian aggression, in addition to the three previously reported.
They include the experience of a Ukrainian woman who said she was repeatedly held and beaten by men in Ukrainian military uniforms who carried out a mock execution before releasing her.
United Nations human rights monitors with access to Ukrainian detention centers have also reported abuses of Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine. The rights observers said that the beatings and abuse of these soldiers occurred mainly at the first moment of capture and that cases of torture occurred sporadically.
Mr Mose said the committee had written to Russian authorities 23 times requesting information, meetings and better access, but had received no response. Russian authorities have not yet commented on the report’s allegations of torture.
Russian guards told a prisoner “welcome to hell,” the commission said, describing brutal admission procedures including beatings and electric shocks. Torture reportedly took place “everywhere”: in cells, corridors, courtyards and the bathhouse.
“I lost all hope and will to live,” a former prisoner told the panel, saying he begged his inquisitors to kill him after he was repeatedly beaten, breaking a collarbone, knocking out teeth and leaving him gangrenous. foot left behind, so he could no longer stand. After his release, the commission said, the former inmate had undergone 36 hospitalizations as of January.
Former prisoners said that in Russian detention centers in occupied Ukraine, torture was carried out by the Russian military, but that prisoners held in Russia were tortured by Russian special forces known as Spetsnaz, and the interrogations were conducted by agents of the main Russian intelligence service. the Federal Security Agency.
The committee said it had interviewed former Spetsnaz members who said torture and abuse of prisoners were encouraged or at least tolerated by their commanders, quoting one general who told them to “work hard without pity.”
Ukrainian military prisoners were tortured for information about their units and the Ukrainian armed forces, but the report said the torture was also used to intimidate and punish. Prisoners described conditions in some prisons where they were held as “inhumane.”
Food was scarce, resulting in acute hunger that prompted some to “eat worms, soap, paper and remains of dog food,” the commission reported.