https://ukraine.un.org/en/224744-un-human-rights-ukraine-released-reports-treatment-prisoners-war-and-overall-human-rightsUN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine released a report of treatment of POWs on both sides and general estimates of the war crimes.
They had only one-sided access, being aligned with NATO, and could only estimate Ukrainian POWs based on interviews instead of direct evidence.
Quote
Our team interviewed more than 400 prisoners of war, approximately 200 on each side. Ukraine provided us with unimpeded confidential access to official places of internment of Russian prisoners of war. The Russian Federation did not give us access. However, we were able to carry out confidential interviews with Ukrainian POWs upon their release.
I will start with Russian prisoners of war in the hands of Ukraine. We are deeply concerned about the summary execution of up to 25 Russian POWs and persons hors de combat by Ukrainian armed forces which we have documented. This was often perpetrated immediately upon capture on the battlefield. While we are aware of ongoing investigations by Ukrainian authorities into five cases involving 22 victims, we are not aware of any prosecutions of the perpetrators.
Almost half of the 229 Russian POWs who we interviewed spoke of being tortured or ill-treated by members of Ukrainian armed forces and the SBU, and to a lesser extent penitentiary staff. The majority of these cases occurred during the initial stages of apprehension and interrogation. POWs were beaten, shot in the legs, stabbed in their limbs, electrocuted, subjected to mock executions, threats of sexual violence or death. In permanent places of internment, such as pre-trial facilities, or the POW camp, reports of mistreatment were significantly less. We still received, however, complaints of beatings in some of these facilities in Dnipro, Vinnytsia and Kharkiv last spring.
Under international law, prisoners of war should not be held in closed confinement. While many remain in closed confinement in Ukraine, we welcome progress through the establishment of a POW camp in Lviv region in April 2022. We expect that the authorities are addressing complaints of humiliating and degrading treatment, which we received during our visit to the camp in December 2022. No camp has been established by the Russian Federation and POWs are regularly held in closed confinement.
In relation to the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war, we are also deeply concerned by the summary execution of 15 Ukrainian prisoners of war shortly after being captured by Russian armed forces. The Wagner Group military and security contractors perpetrated 11 of these executions.
Of the 203 Ukrainian POWs that we interviewed, 67 per cent fell into the hands of Russian forces after their surrender was negotiated by commanders. In these cases, we saw better protection for them at the beginning of their captivity.
However, the majority of Ukrainian prisoners of war who were captured during battle were tortured or ill-treated before internment. Members of Russian armed forces and the Russian Security Service tortured and ill-treated them to extract military information, to intimidate or humiliate them, or as a form of retribution. Forms of torture included beating, electrocution, or in several cases, being shot or stabbed in the legs. Mock executions were also common. The report describes one case, where a POW died from injuries within hours after he was tortured.
Conditions for many Ukrainian prisoners of war were shocking. A prisoner of war we spoke to told us – and I quote - “We were provided with just enough food to keep us alive”. Access to medical care was often insufficient, or unavailable, sometimes leading to dire consequences. The report documents that five of them died in internment reportedly due to the lack of medical attention.
The number of documented cases of torture and ill-treatment during internment in penitentiary facilities is shocking – more than 84 per cent endured such mistreatment. Penitentiary staff subjected prisoners of war to so-called ‘welcome beatings’ upon their arrival, beat and electrocuted them regularly during inspections in cells or while walking them around the facilities. Members of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Services (FSIN) and those in charge of many places of internment in Russian occupied territory systematically engaged in such practices against POWs. Former POWs told our colleagues that they dreaded weekly trips to the shower which inevitably ended in beatings and humiliation, often with sexual overtones. We documented that five POWs died from injuries sustained during torture in internment.