The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on the treatment of prisoners of war during the war between Russia and Ukraine. The document is published on the official website.
Researchers interviewed more than 300 prisoners – 159 Ukrainians, including 20 women, and 175 Russians. After analyzing the answers, the authors of the report came to the conclusion that both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers were subjected to torture and cruel circulation.
The report says that the Russian side systematically brutally treated the prisoners, “especially during the internation,” and the Ukrainian side is irregularly, most often during the capture and subsequent transportation to the places of internation.
According to the Ukrainian military who were captured, they did not apply physical violence during the surrender to them, and Russian soldiers were respectfully, but some Ukrainians said they beat them, and most said that their things were stolen.
After the detention of Ukrainians, they transported in crowded buses and trucks to the places of restriction of freedom. Some were not given water for more than a day or go to the toilet. More than 80% of Ukrainians surveyed complained about the lack of water and poor -quality food. Some said that they were beaten, “obviously, in revenge for military failures or immediately after the battle.”
Most of the Ukrainian military talked about torture and cruelty during detention in Russia. They were beaten with their hands and batons, tortured with shock, strangled, stabs, imitated execution, threatened with rape.
Russian prisoners of war in many cases complained about physical violence after passing into Ukrainian captivity and during the first interrogations. According to them, most often beaten, less often tortured.
Many Russian prisoners of war announced bad and humiliating conditions during transportation to transit camps and places of internation. Many claimed that they were transported stripped with their hands, after which they published a video on the Internet. In some places, Russian prisoners were beaten as soon as they brought to the places of internation, as well as directly during the detention.