UN Says Russia Is Systematically Torturing Ukrainian POWs — With Sexual Violence in Over 95% of Cases
Freed detainees described beatings and electric shocks to the UN Security Council this week, as Moscow held over 16,000 Ukrainian civilians and dismissed the findings as propaganda.
Former Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees gave harrowing testimony to an informal UN Security Council session this week, describing beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse during their captivity in Russian detention facilities.
The testimony came alongside new findings from UN human rights monitors, who said the pattern is not isolated. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio told the Security Council that monitoring by her office shows abuse is continuing on a mass scale.
WIDESPREAD AND SYSTEMATIC TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF UKRAINIAN PRISONERS OF WAR AND CIVILIAN DETAINEES BY THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AUTHORITIES CONTINUES
According to the UN's monitoring data, more than 95% of released detainees interviewed reported experiencing severe physical or sexual violence while in Russian custody. The UN also estimates Russia is currently holding more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians in detention, separate from military POWs, more than three and a half years into the war.
MOSCOW PUSHES BACK
Russian officials rejected the allegations outright, characterizing the testimony as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign against Moscow. Russian representatives also claimed, without offering comparable independent verification, that Russian prisoners held in Ukraine have faced similar mistreatment.
The accounts presented this week echo years of documentation from UN human rights bodies, which have repeatedly found evidence of systematic abuse in Russian-run detention facilities holding Ukrainian civilians and soldiers since the start of the full-scale invasion. Former detainees who spoke to the Security Council, several of whom were released in prisoner exchanges, called for greater international accountability and renewed pressure on Moscow to allow independent monitors access to detention sites.
Ukrainian officials at the session pressed for expanded sanctions and for the findings to be referred for potential war-crimes prosecution, though any binding Security Council action remains unlikely given Russia's veto power on the council. Human rights investigators said they intend to keep collecting testimony from newly released detainees as prisoner exchanges continue.