Ukrainian prisoners of war are subject to systematic torture and ill-treatment at all stages of Russian captivity.
This is stated in the report of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission.
The mission published a previous report on prisoners of war in March 2023. Since then, the UN has interviewed another 169 discharged Ukrainian soldiers, five discharged medical workers, as well as 205 Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine.
According to the organization, Ukrainian prisoners of war told about brutal beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, strangulation, prolonged stay in stressful positions, forced excessive physical exertion, sleep deprivation, simulated execution, threats of violence and humiliation.
Torture and other forms of ill-treatment were common during interrogations and at all stages of captivity, including reception procedures, daily internment procedures, and appalling conditions of detention. Abuse of prisoners was observed in various places of detention in many regions in the occupied territory of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
The UN notes that many of the documented cases of torture or ill-treatment involved different government agencies — often indicating a significant level of coordination between them. Since the prisoners were abused on a daily or weekly basis, this showed the awareness of the guards of the institution.
"Ukrainian prisoners of war said that in several cases, when outside officials visited places of detention, torture and ill-treatment were temporarily stopped, and conditions were improved. That is, the officials in charge of the institutions could stop the torture and ill-treatment when necessary," the report said.
Interviewees who returned from captivity testified that the most cruel treatment was experienced by military personnel of certain specialties, such as artillerymen, or servicemen of certain units. UN experts became aware of at least 38 places of detention in the Russian Federation and in the Ukrainian territories occupied by it, where prisoners of war are massively beaten during reception, probably with the aim of "breaking the spirit of the new arrivals."
The organization notes that Russian public figures have openly called for inhumane treatment and even the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
UN experts still cannot get to the places of detention of prisoners in the Russian Federation and its occupied territories. At the same time, Kyiv provides such access — the authors of the report were able to interview 205 Russian soldiers in Ukrainian camps over the past 18 months.
Moreover, according to the UN, 104 of them also complained about torture — in almost all cases, it was about beatings during the initial stages of captivity or during transit to official camps, where conditions of detention "generally met international standards.”
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.