Ukrainian civilians suffer systematic torture in Russian facilities, UN says

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) -Russia has systematically tortured Ukrainian civilians in over 100 detention centres in Russia and occupied Ukraine since the start of the war, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday.

Its report detailed cases of mock executions, electric shocks and the use of prolonged stress positions on Ukrainian citizens for non-criminal acts, such as criticising Russia's invasion, which it said had proved fatal in some cases.

"It's widespread and systematic torture. It was documented in every region of occupied territory, as well as dozens of regions inside the Russian Federation," Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told a Geneva press briefing, presenting the 22-page report.

Russia's diplomatic mission in Geneva referred questions on the report to the Foreign Affairs Ministry which did not immediately provide a comment. It has previously denied using torture or other forms of maltreatment against detainees.

The U.N. report is based on interviews with 215 former detainees who gave detailed accounts of their captivity since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The office says it has not been granted access to the 114 detention facilities which it showed on a map in occupied parts of Ukraine and 28 Russian regions. Some hold Ukrainian prisoners of war whom the U.N. says have also been tortured.

Ukraine says some 15,000 civilians have been detained by Russia since 2022 of whom at least 1,800 remain in detention. Bell said her office had confirmed at least 400 ongoing detentions, with the real scale probably much greater.

Torture often occurred during initial interrogations but also in daily life where regular beatings occurred and detainees were forced to walk at a bent angle, Bell said.

"These weren't random incidents, and it would have been unlikely or impossible for those in charge, not to have known that this was taking place," she told reporters from Kyiv.

In some cases, medics in Russian facilities participated in the torture, Bell said, or ignored detainees' calls for help with their torture-inflicted symptoms. Her office has so far confirmed 36 deaths from torture, poor conditions or lack of access to medical care, she added.

U.N. bodies have previously documented a few cases of ill-treatment by Ukrainian forces of Russian detainees and Kyiv has said it would investigate any violations.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

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