By: Iris Shen
This February, the war between Russia and Ukraine began when Russian forces pushed north from Crimea, a part of Ukraine that Moscow seized in 2014, and took control of territory along the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts.
Russian forces have abused and beaten civilians in the areas of southern Ukraine that they control. These series of horrific tortures may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch, a New York-based nonprofit, said this weekend in a report.
These acts, committed by Russian forces north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have already attracted global outrage and have been the subject of war crime trials by Ukrainian prosecutors, but the report by Human Rights Watch casts a spotlight on the south of the country, where the Russian forces tightly control access and information.
“Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness,” said Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“Torture, inhumane treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and unlawful confinement of civilians, are among the apparent war crimes we have documented.” She also warned that Russian authorities should end such abuses immediately and understand that they would be held their accountability.
Human Rights Watch said that it had spoke with 71 people who described 42 cases in which Russian forces held people incommunicado or in which people had disappeared after having been detained.
The report described “people interviewed described being tortured, or witnessing torture, through prolonged beatings and in some cases electric shocks,” adding that injuries included severe burns; cuts; concussions; broken teeth; broken bones, including ribs; and broken blood vessels.
Kherson Province was the first area of the country that saw large civilian protests against Russian troops early on in the invasion. This was followed by repression, which has grown more brutal in Kherson. Many have carried out a series of bombings and attacks on local Russian leaders and have helped Ukrainian troops try to reclaim lost territory.
Source articles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/world/europe/russia-torture-ukraine-human-rights-watch.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/world/europe/ukraine.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/22/ukraine-torture-disappearances-occupied-south
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/18/world/ukraine-russia-news-deaths