“Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness…Torture, inhumane treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and unlawful confinement of civilians, are among the apparent war crimes we have documented,” said Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Atrocities committed by Russian forces in Kyiv region have already drawn global outrage, but the report by Human Rights Watch casts a spotlight on the south of the country, where the Russian occupation forces tightly control access and information.
Human Rights Watch spoke with 71 people in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions who described 42 cases in which Russian forces had held people incommunicado or in which people had disappeared after having been detained.
“People interviewed described being tortured, or witnessing torture, through prolonged beatings and in some cases electric shocks,” the report said, adding that injuries included severe burns; cuts; concussions; broken teeth; broken bones, including ribs; and broken blood vessels.
The Human Rights Watch report documented the torture of three members of Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces who were being held as prisoners of war, and said that two had died.
As a reminder, the Geneva Conventions allow opposing sides in an international conflict to hold combatants as prisoners or war and also to intern civilians in certain circumstances, such as if they are deemed a serious and continuing threat to the detaining authority. But torture and inhumane treatment are prohibited and, when connected to a conflict, constitute war crimes. Political leaders can be charged with war crimes for abuses committed by their forces.
