“The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch stated that the Russian authorities and the military systematically torture Ukrainian prisoners of war, keeping them in terrible conditions without proper food and medical care, which constitutes war crimes and violations of the Geneva Conventions”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“Such actions constitute serious violations of the Geneva Conventions applicable during international armed conflicts and constitute war crimes. Any torture of detainees – prisoners of war, civilians or anyone else – is strictly prohibited by international law and may constitute a crime against humanity,” human rights activists point out.
They report that they have conducted hundreds of interviews with former POWs, and the evidence collected indicates that physical and psychological torture of POWs is a widespread practice aimed at destroying the prisoners’ sense of self-worth and self-awareness. Russia keeps thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war in appalling conditions, depriving them of proper food, medical care, and basic hygiene, Human Rights Watch adds.
“The systematic use of torture by the Russian authorities against Ukrainian prisoners of war is abhorrent and constitutes a serious violation of the basic guarantees of international humanitarian law,” said Holly Cartner, deputy program director of Human Rights Watch. – Prisoners of war in Russian captivity face life-threatening torture every day. All those responsible for these crimes must be brought to justice.”
Former prisoners of war regularly report ill-treatment in numerous detention facilities in Russia and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. They talked about brutal beatings, forced holding in painful positions for long periods of time, sleep deprivation, staged executions, use of electric shocks, and dogs harassing them. According to them, the torture began from the moment they were captured and continued throughout the entire period of detention in camps and places of deprivation of liberty.