Activists collect evidence of Russian crimes in southern Ukraine

14:00 25 July Kyiv, Ukraine

Human Rights Watch has documented cases of war crimes by the Russian army in the occupied southern Ukraine.

 
This is reported in the report of the human rights organization.
 
"Russian forces have turned the occupied regions of southern Ukraine into a whirlpool of fear and wild lawlessness... Torture, inhuman treatment, and arbitrary detention and unlawful imprisonment of civilians are among the clear war crimes we have documented," said Yulia Gorbunova, Senior Ukraine Researcher at Human Rights Watch.
 
HRW spoke with 71 people from Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Skadovsk and ten other cities in Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, who described 42 cases of detention and torture by the occupiers.
 
“People interviewed said that they were tortured or they witnessed torture in the form of prolonged beatings and, in some cases, electric shocks.. They described injuries including broken ribs and other bones, knocked out teeth, severe burns, concussion, cuts and bruises," the report said.
 
In particular, torture of three servicemen of the territorial defense forces who were in captivity was recorded.. Two of them died.

In all but one of the detentions, Russian forces failed to tell the families where their loved ones were. In a number of cases, detainees were released only after they signed a statement promising to "cooperate" with the occupying authorities.
 
"Apparently, the purpose of the abuses is to obtain information and instill fear so that people come to terms with the occupation, as Russia seeks to assert sovereignty over the occupied territory in violation of international law," the human rights activists emphasized.