Russian horror: winter deaths and war crimes
Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate top officials in war crimes, a senior US official claimed as Kyiv said it had discovered four Russian torture sites in newly liberated Kherson.
Moscow, in turn, accused Ukrainian forces of summarily killing a number of prisoners of war after a video of POW bodies surfaced.
It came as the World Health Organisation said the Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s power grid had left millions of lives at risk as winter descended with frigid tem
peratures. The damage was having “knockout effects” on Ukraine’s health system, WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said.
“This winter will be about survival,” he warned, saying it would be “life-threatening for millions of people in Ukraine”.
Up to 3 million Ukrainians could be forced to leave their homes in search of warmth and safety, he said.
“They will face unique health challenges, including respiratory infections such as Covid-19, pneumonia, influenza, and the serious risk of diphtheria and measles.”
Residents of Kherson were told they could evacuate to other regions given the city’s heavily damaged infrastructure and services, as power company Yasno warned of extended blackouts.
“You should be prepared for different options, even the worst ones. Stock up on warm clothes, blankets, think about options that will help you wait out a long shutdown,” it said.
Ukraine said it had discovered four Russian torture sites in the southern city of Kherson. It was one of the earliest of the major cities Russian forces captured when they invaded the country in February.
The city was retaken earlier this month after Russian forces retreated under threat from Ukraine troops.
“Together with police officers and experts, (prosecutors) conducted inspections of four premises where, during the capture of the city, the occupiers illegally detained people and brutally tortured them,” the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said.
Russian forces had also set up “pseudo-law enforcement agencies” at detention centres in Kherson.
The remains of rubber truncheons, a wooden bat and “a device with which the occupiers tortured civilians with electricity” were found.
Russian authorities also left behind paperwork documenting the administration of the detention sites.
Last week, the Ukrainian ombudsman said Russian forces were responsible for “horrific” torture in Kherson.