The UN denounces the widespread torture of Ukrainian detainees by Russian troops

The United Nations Office for Human Rights has been able to document 864 cases of civilians arbitrarily detained by Russian forces in the context of the war in Ukraine, of which 90% have been victims of torture and degrading treatmentsome of a sexual nature.

This has been pointed out in the Human Rights Council by the head of that body, Volker Türk, who indicated that Russia has not given him access to any detention center, but that his staff could interview 178 former detainees who exposed these abuses.

In total, the human rights mission deployed in Ukraine by the UN has verified 900 cases of civilians arbitrarily detained, of which 864 have been the responsibility of the Russian security forces. “Many of them were in incommunicado detention, which is equivalent to forced disappearances”said the high commissioner for human rights.

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Among the detainees were civil servants, humanitarian volunteers, alleged political opponents, teachers, former soldiers and even priests. In 26% of cases, these victims were transferred to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine or Russian territory, without the families receiving any information.

Türk has further noted that 77 summary executions of civilians have been documented while in Russian hands.

The UN also has information indicating that Russia detains civilians with the sole purpose of using them as “human shields”, which helps him avoid Ukrainian attacks against certain areas where his forces are present. Türk has called on the Russian government to clearly instruct his troops and any other personnel that they must respect human rights and international law.