More than 95 percent of Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed by the United Nations reported being subjected to torture or other forms of ill-treatment while in captivity. Former Ukrainian prisoners also testified before the UN Security Council about beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence during their detention in Russian captivity.
Russia has denied the allegations.
Former Ukrainian prisoners and Ukrainian officials accused Russia, during an informal meeting of the UN Security Council, of systematically torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees, holding them in isolation and subjecting them to physical and sexual violence. Thousands of Ukrainians remain in captivity in Russia and in occupied territories, they said, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian serviceman Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, who spent 1,183 days in captivity, said he was subjected to almost every form of physical and psychological abuse imaginable, including daily beatings, electric shocks, forced exercises in extreme cold and sexual violence.
He also said that two of his friends were beaten to death in detention facilities in the Donetsk region.
Activist Leniie Umerova, who was released in a prisoner exchange in 2024, said she was transferred between seven detention facilities after being arrested while attempting to visit her seriously ill father in Crimea.
She accused Russian authorities of using torture as a tool of repression against Ukrainians in captivity.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio said UN monitoring shows that widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees by Russian authorities continues, including sexual violence.
