The UN monitoring mission published the 38th report on the situation with human rights in Ukraine. The mission documented credible reports of the execution of at least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war between December 1, 2023 and February 29, 2024.
Experts also conducted interviews with 60 Ukrainian military personnel recently released from captivity, and found that most of them had experienced sexual violence.
The prisoners testified that the Russian military and officials torture the prisoners, including beatings, electric shocks, forcing them to stay in an uncomfortable position for a long time, threatening to shoot them or simulating them.
"The majority of POWs also mention the suffering of not being able to communicate with their families, as well as the lack of adequate food and medical care," says the head of the Mission, Daniel Bell.
The monitoring mission also cites data on interviews with 44 Russian prisoners of war who, although they do not claim torture in official places of detention, gave "testimony of torture and ill-treatment in places of their temporary stay after evacuation from the battlefield."
The Missionʼs report also contains information about the violence of the Russian administration against residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine. In particular, it is about the killing of civilians, arbitrary detentions and restrictions on freedom of expression.
"During the three-month period, the number of civilian casualties remained high: 429 civilians were killed and another 1,374 were injured in conflict-related violence. A significant intensification of shelling and barrage ammunition from the Russian side in the period from the end of December to January led to a sharp increase in the number of casualties among the civilian population in areas far from the front line," the authors of the document conclude.
According to the UN, the total number of established civilian casualties in Ukraine "remains comparable to the number of casualties in the previous period."