GENEVA: Russian authorities have subjected civilian detainees in Ukrainian areas it occupies to torture, including sexual violence, in a “widespread and systematic manner,” the United Nations said Tuesday.
In a fresh report, the UN rights office concluded that Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 “has subjected Ukrainian civilian detainees to consistent patterns of serious violations” of international law.
The report said UN investigators had interviewed 216 civilians released from detention in the occupied territories since June 2023.
A full 92 percent of them “gave consistent and detailed accounts of of having been subjected to torture or ill-treatment during their captivity,” it said.
“Severe beatings with a variety of instruments, such as batons and sticks, electric shocks to various body parts (and) mock executions,” were among the methods described.
