Ukrainians recount torture and sexual abuse meted out in Russian prisons
More than 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed reported experiencing torture or ill-treatment, according to a U.N. official.
Ukrainian service members who have surrendered after weeks holed up at Azovstal steel works are seen inside a bus, which arrived under escort of the pro-Russian military at a detention facility in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the settlement of Olenivka in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine on May 17, 2022. | REUTERS
Aug 11, 2026
Former Ukrainian detainees and Ukrainian officials accused Russia on Monday of systematically torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees, holding captives incommunicado and subjecting them to beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse, with thousands still in captivity.
Russia rejected the allegations made at an informal U.N. Security Council meeting, with its Deputy U.N. Representative Maria Zabolotskaya calling it “a disinformation campaign” and alleging that Russian prisoners in Ukraine were subjected to “torture and degradation and moral and physical abuse.”
Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, still an active member of the Ukrainian military, said his Russian captors subjected him to every imaginable form of torture during 1,183 days in captivity.
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