Russia and Ukraine have tortured prisoners of war: UN

Russia and Ukraine have tortured prisoners of war during the conflict in Ukraine, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has said, citing examples of mistreatment including beatings, the use of electric shocks and forced nudity, Aljazeera reported. The OHCHR’s Ukraine-based monitoring team’s findings were based on interviews with more than 100 prisoners of war (POWs) on each side of the war, which will soon drag into its ninth month. On Tuesday, the office called on Kyiv and Moscow – both of which are parties to the Geneva Conventions that set out the laws of war, including on the treatment of POWs – to “investigate and prosecute all allegations of violations”.

Matilda Bogner, head of the monitoring mission, told a Geneva press briefing that the “vast majority” of the 159 Ukrainian prisoners interviewed reported torture and ill-treatment.

She gave examples of dog attacks, electric shocks with Tasers and military phones, and of sexual violence. Bogner said the treatment was aimed at intimidating and humiliating detainees, according to Aljazeera. One man who was held in a penal colony near Olenivka, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said members of Russian-affiliated armed groups “attached wires” to his genitalia and nose and electric-shocked him.