A significant increase in violations of the right to liberty and security of persons by Ukrainian security forces has been documented by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) since February 24, 2022.
"In territory of Ukraine under control of the Government of Ukraine, OHCHR documented 91 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions (79 men, 12 women) committed by Ukrainian armed forces and law enforcement agencies," the report said, adding that most detainees were arrested for suspicion of collaborating with, or other forms of aiding, Russian Armed Forces.
In addition, the international organization documented the arbitrary detention of 88 Russian civilian sailors, one of whom died from a chronic condition due to the lack of adequate medical care.
The report also refers to the spike in conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in territory controlled by Kiev between March and July 2022. As per the OHCHR, these cases mostly affected men and consisted predominantly of threats of sexual violence during the initial stages of detention by Ukrainian law enforcement officers, and of forced public stripping of alleged lawbreakers by civilians or members of territorial defense forces.
The international entity also raised concerns about the overall fairness of proceedings during the prosecution of war crimes in Ukraine.
What's Left Out?
Meanwhile, evidence of torture and inhuman interrogation practices in the territories controlled by the government of Ukraine is continuing to pile up.
On May 30, a Russian law enforcement source told Sputnik that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has opened torture chambers to interrogate people who had cooperated with the Russian authorities while areas were under Russia's control between March and November 2022. The torture facilities were created at two district police departments, Dneprovsky and Komsomolsky in Dnepropetrovsk.
One of the detainees, Vladimir Malina, a former business assistant who stayed in Kherson after the pull-out of the Russian troops, was beaten to death in the torture chamber of the Dneprovsky police department, according to the Sputnik source. Two other prisoners, Roman Gavrilyuk and Igor Gurov, who also used to cooperate with the Russians, were tortured and forced to write an explanation that Malina was released together with them in a bid to conceal his death. Besides Malina, several other people were tortured in these chambers.
Residential Torture Chambers
Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian military and allied militias have found numerous "improvised" torture rooms located in residential sectors, in basements, barns or gas stations where heavily mutilated bodies or traces thereof were discovered.
In particular, in March 2022, the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) militia discovered a Ukrainian torture chamber in the basement of a residential building near a village called Trekhizbenka in the Lugansk region. LPR militiamen told Sputnik that they found a murdered civilian in the basement and bloodstains on the floor. Judging from the corpse's condition, the man was tormented by the Ukrainian military prior to being shot in the head, according to the Sputnik source.
More of those facilities were found in the liberated regions of the LPR. One of them was an abandoned gas station that had been under the control of the Right Sector*, a paramilitary confederation of several ultranationalist and neo-Nazi organizations founded by Dmytro Yarosh in November 2013. The coalition played a considerable role in the illegitimate February 2014 coup d'etat in Kiev. In LPR, the Right Sector resorted to gruesome torture practices by drowning Lugansk civilians alive in gasoline storage tanks.
Another torture chamber was found in Kherson in May 2022 with a legless corpse along with syringes, drugs, and cases for Javelins.
'They Abused Me for the Sake of Amusement'
Victims of the Ukrainian torture machine have given a plethora of testimonies detailing inhumane attitude towards them and brazen violation of their human rights by the Kiev forces.
In June 2022, a Donbass resident who returned from Ukrainian captivity described on record instances of physical and psychological abuse which he had been subjected to during two months.
"I was tortured with a stun gun and sticks," the man said, adding that threats were also issued against his family. When asked what goals the Ukrainian military pursued by torturing him, the man noted that besides attempts to break his will his tormentors also derived some sick pleasure from watching him suffer.
A similar story was told by a Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militiaman in November 2022. He particularly recalled how the Ukrainian military told him that they were going to burn out a letter "Z" – a reference to an informal name of the Russian special military operation – either on his forehead or his leg. They mockingly asked him to choose where he would like to have it. "I chose a leg," the DPR soldier said, demonstrating a Z-form scar.
Russian POWs
Torturing of Russian POWs by the Ukrainian military, foreign mercenaries and neo-Nazi battalions still remains a largely untold story in the international media. The rules protecting prisoners of war are specific and were first codified in the 1929 Geneva Convention. Thus, POWs cannot be tortured or slaughtered; they must be treated humanely and given medical attention if needed.
On April 4, a video appeared online purportedly depicting the killing of a wounded Russian soldier who was still breathing. "He’s still alive. Film these marauders. Look, he’s still alive. He’s gasping," a Ukrainian serviceman said, identified by his national flag patches and blue arm band.
There were at least three more killed Russian soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs and white bands on their arms surrounded by blood stains. It was later verified that the killings on Russian captives took place near the village of Dmytrivka, seven miles southwest of Bucha, following a Ukrainian ambush of a withdrawing Russian column on March 30.
The case was just one in a plethora of instances when Russian POWs were mistreated and killed in captivity. In some cases, Ukrainian troops burned the bodies of the Russian POWs apparently in a bid to conceal the traces of tormention.
In May 2022, a Ukrainian soldier stated on record that many Russian pilots were tortured to death. "None of them died quickly," he said.
For his part, a former Russian POW recalled how he and other Russian servicemen were treated in Ukrainian detention centers. Some of those who were taken by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) never came back, the soldier noted.
"Many guys went through this," he said. "Sometimes they didn't survive after that."
Remarkably, the Ukrainian military demonstrated the same ruthlessness to their own people who refused to fight. A Ukrainian POW from the ultranationalist Aidar* battalion recalled that he was brought down to the basement by people wearing masks, who shot him in the legs and tortured him. When asked, what was the reason for this brutal treatment, the Aidar serviceman responded: "I don't know what they were hoping to achieve. Probably, to force me to keep fighting."
Ukrainian Torture Sites Date Back to 2014
These gruesome torture practices had been exercised by the Kiev regime forces long before the beginning of the Russian special military operation.
In 2019, Vasily Prozorov, a former SBU officer, revealed that soon after the February coup in Kiev a secret torture prison dubbed "The Library" was founded at airport in Mariupol, Donetsk region, in June 2014. The "black site" was operated by the Azov Battalion** and "supervised" by the SBU.
People detained for links to the DPR or suspected pro-Russian ideas were called "books". After being checked, the prisoners were kept in the refrigerators of the airport restaurant. According to the testimonies of former detainees, Ukrainian nationalists used different torture techniques, including waterboarding, asphyxiation, and breaking fingers.
“I was taken out for interrogation with a black plastic bag over my head," recalled Mariupol resident Olga Seletskaya. "It was wrapped with adhesive tape in the area of my eyes... I was wearing handcuff… They took me to a large room, sat me on a chair and began to question me. When I refused to answer, they began to choke me with this bag, cutting off all air supply… I began to suffocate, lost consciousness, and this was repeated several times. I could not give them the information they wanted from me."
Commenting on the Kiev regime's torture chamber and ferocious interrogation techniques, some international observers refer to similar practices employed by the CIA during the US' infamous war on terror as well as by US soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Meanwhile, historians draw attention to the Ukrainian nationalists' brutality during the Second World War. At the time, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its paramilitary wing the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – infamous Nazi collaborators rehabilitated by the Kiev regime – were infamous for torture and genocide of ethnic minorities and political opponents. The Ukrainian nationalists used to heavily mutilate the bodies of their victims in order to dehumanize them and strike terror.
While the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has recently touched upon some disturbing instances of human rights abuse by the Kiev regime, lots of cases covering the period from 2014 to 2023 have yet to be thoroughly investigated by the international organizations and human rights watchdogs.
*The Right Sector and Aidar battalion are extremist organizations banned in Russia.
**Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.