- The United Nations also condemns that Ukraine has sporadically tortured Russian prisoners.
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| Ukrainian prisoners of war. |
Electric shocks, beatings, burns... the UN denounces that Russia has "systematically" tortured Ukrainian prisoners
Russia has systematically tortured its captured prisoners of war since its aggression against Ukraine began, while Ukrainian forces have done so in certain circumstances and places, but sporadically, the UN said Tuesday.
A United Nations mission of human rights monitors working on the ground has corroborated "with a considerable margin of certainty" a series of tortures by Russian forces and their allies, using methods that include electric shocks, beatings, burning, and other types of abuse.
The head of the mission, Matilda Bogner, told reporters in Geneva that the Ukrainian government gave her team confidential access to the Russian prisoners, while she was only able to interview the Ukrainian prisoners once they were released by Russia, usually through a prisoner exchange.
In total, the mission interviewed 159 prisoners of war (including 20 women) who were being held by Russia and its supporting armed groups, as well as 175 prisoners held by Ukraine.
No water for more than a day
It has been possible to determine that in addition to the extreme physical mistreatment and psychological abuse against the Ukrainian prisoners, they were also kept in inhumane conditions, sometimes without access to toilets or water for more than a day.
The worst moment was the arrival of the prisoners at the detention centers, where they went through an "admission procedure", which actually consisted of beatings, threats, attacks with dogs, and painful positions for long periods of time.
Prisoners with a certain hierarchy or responsibility are the most likely to be tortured in order to extract information from them, unlike common soldiers who are considered of little importance.
In relation to prisoners of war in less than Ukraine, Bogner said that there are "credible reports" of summary executions of people who were already hors de combat and of various cases of torture and ill-treatment, allegedly committed by members of the armed forces Ukrainian.
The head of the mission maintained that the alleged executions correspond to the initial period of the war and that Ukraine opened investigations in this regard, although no progress has been seen in these.
Russia refuses to pay war reparations
On the other hand, the Kremlin rejected on Tuesday the UN General Assembly resolution on Russia's payment of war reparations to Ukraine.
"The organizers of this process are trying to finish looting our gold and currency reserves, which were blocked in a totally illegal way," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, referring to the freezing of Russian assets in the West.
"This resolution is not legally binding and we consider it to be so. We are categorically against it," Peskov emphasized. The resolution calls for the establishment of an international mechanism for reparation and recommends creating an "international damage register" to document the losses and damages suffered by Ukraine during the Russian military campaign.
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