Over 95% of Ukrainian POWs tortured in Russia - UN
That’s according to the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell, Ukrinform reports, referring to NOS.
"They are tortured during the first interrogation. They are beaten with metal sticks and batons, get severely shocked with electricity. They get stripped. This is terrible. This is the worst I have seen in 20 years of my career visiting prisoners on behalf of the UN. Torture is widespread and structural. 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war have been tortured, and this is a war crime," she said.
Information on Ukrainian prisoners of war, to whom no access is provided, is collected during interviews upon their return to Ukraine as part of POW swaps, she added.
She also noted that the treatment of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine is different from what Ukrainian POWs face in Russia.
"Ukrainian authorities give us unlimited access to camps and temporary prisons where POWs are held. Although there have been some problems since the invasion, over the past 1.5 years we have seen conditions of detention consistent with the humanitarian law of war," Bell said.
As reported, Ukrainian prisoner of war Oleksandr Ishchenko, who served as a driver in the Azov Regiment, was pronounced dead in a detention center in Rostov-on-Don.
