After the beginning of the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine in February 2014 and the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in February 2022, torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian citizens, servicemen and civilians, have become the elements of policy of the Russian armed forces and the armed formations controlled by them on the territory of Ukraine.
At the end of October 2023, the Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, Erik Møse, noted that the conclusion of the Commission was that “the use of torture by the Russian authorities is widespread and systematic”, which can also be classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
According to the report of the above-mentioned Independent International Commission, which was presented to the UN General Assembly, torture committed by the Russian military in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are consistent and widespread and often resulted in death.
According to the Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General, “about 90% of Ukrainian prisoners of war were subjected to torture, rape, threats of sexual violence or other forms of ill-treatment.”
In the report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, that is based on information from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the facts of torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war were recorded at all stages of their captivity – from capture to repatriation to Ukraine.
The prohibition of torture is an imperative rule of international law (jus cogens), and its convention consolidation is reflected in many international universal and regional legal acts.
Russia’s torture and inhuman treatment of Ukrainian POWs and civilians repeat every day.
Perpetrators of acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment are usually servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, officers of the Russian Special Services.
The main purpose of torture is the exerting pressure on detained persons in order to obtain the necessary information.
From the moment of capture, physical and psychological influence is applied to detained persons: (1) immediately upon arrival at the institution, (2) during interrogations, (3) during the entire period of stay in the institution.
There are cases when FSB (Russian Federal Service of Security) officers instructed the administration of places of detention on the need to ensure regular physical and psychological impact on detained Ukrainian prisoners of war.
In the case of a visit to the place of detention of representatives of international organizations (for example, the ICRC), three weeks before the visit, all forms of physical influence on prisoners of war shall cease; two or three days before the visit – all necessary hygiene products, new bed linen, clothes and shoes are issued; one day before the visit, the administration of the place of detention warns the prisoners of war that if they provide information about torture and abuse to representatives of international organizations, after their departure, even more severe measures will be applied to them.
Physical and psychological violence includes kicking with feet and hands, automatic weapons, rubber, metal, wooden batons and sticks or by other improvised objects; torture, including the use of electric current; application of open fire to different parts of the body; tasks of mutilation by separating parts of the body and disfiguring the face, etc.; simulation of shooting or drowning; rape or the threat of such; death threats which are systematically applied to Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians during their stay in places of detention. There are also facts of murder of persons who were already in captivity, failure to provide medical aid, food and water, etc.
Since February 24, 2022, prosecutors provide procedural guidance in 7 criminal proceedings based on the facts of the use of filtration measures against the civilian population by the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation.
During the investigation of these cases, the use of 121 filtration camps was recorded, 30 people were recognized as victims.
In the abovementioned criminal cases, 115 places of detention were established, where filtration measures were carried out: in Kherson region – 18, in Zaporizhzhia region – 10, in Kharkiv region – 25, in Sumy region – 5, in Luhansk region – 27, in Donetsk region – 30.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, prosecutors have provided procedural guidance in 2,101 criminal cases on the facts of torture of civilians by members of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and occupation administrations.
In the course of the investigation, 120 places where representatives of the occupation authorities detained and tortured civilians were recorded.
The total number of victims who were detained in these torture chambers exceeds 5,600.
This document was provided by the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of North Macedonia
