Ukrainian prisoners recount torture, sexual abuse in Russian captivity

Former Ukrainian detainees and officials on Monday accused Russia of systematically torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees, including through beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse, with thousands of Ukrainians still in captivity.

Russia rejected the allegations at an informal UN Security Council meeting, with Deputy UN Representative Maria Zabolotskaya dismissing them as a “disinformation campaign” and accusing Ukraine of torturing and degrading Russian prisoners.

Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, a serving Ukrainian soldier who spent 1,183 days in Russian captivity, told reporters he was subjected to repeated physical and psychological torture, including daily beatings, electric shocks, forced exercises in freezing temperatures and sexual abuse.

Garsiya said two of his friends were beaten to death in detention centres in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. He also described overcrowded barracks with poor conditions, widespread dysentery and prisoners going hungry. He said guards singled him out because of his Latino name and accused him of being a mercenary and an American spy.

Crimean Tatar activist Leniie Umerova, who was freed in a 2024 prisoner exchange, said she was detained while travelling to Crimea to visit her seriously ill father. She said she was transferred through seven detention facilities in what she described as a “carousel of repression”.

Oleg Gushin of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Ukrainian authorities had identified more than 300 detention sites in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory. He said more than 9,000 Ukrainians had been returned through prisoner exchanges, while thousands remained in Russian captivity.

Ukraine’s Chargé d’Affaires Volodymyr Pavlichenko called for greater international pressure and accountability over Russia’s treatment of detainees.

UN: ‘Widespread and systematic’ torture

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio said UN monitoring had found that “widespread and systematic” torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees by Russian authorities continued, including sexual violence.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the UN human rights office has documented the execution of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war at the beginning of their captivity and the deaths of 48 others in detention due to torture, denial of medical care or other inhumane conditions, Fuentes Julio said.

More than 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed by the UN reported torture or ill-treatment, she said. More than half also reported sexual violence, including rape, beatings while naked, attacks on the genitals and electric shocks.

The UN has also documented severe beatings with batons, belts and wooden objects, electric shocks, dog attacks and mock executions, Fuentes Julio said.

She added that the UN had documented torture and ill-treatment of Russian and third-country prisoners of war held by Ukraine as well, but said it occurred on a “fundamentally different scale”. About half of the Russian and third-country prisoners interviewed reported abuse during the initial stages of captivity.