Russia’s campaign of torture
Captives are ‘suffocated and hit with baseball bats’ Love and defiance ... portrait of the first lady of Kyiv
RUSSIA’S torture tactics on Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have been revealed in a shocking report by Human Rights Watch.
The organisation has uncovered human rights abuses and possible war crimes in parts of Ukraine’s south which were seized by Russia in March.
Its findings describe how captives were suffocated with plastic bags, beaten with baseball bats and given electric shocks.
Many were beaten so badly that they were left with broken ribs, missing teeth, severe burns and eye damage. Those who were released could ‘barely walk’.
‘Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness,’ said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher for the pressure group. Human Rights Watch also found that pro-Ukraine protesters and journalists were subjected to violence for criticising pro-Moscow administrators.
Three soldiers were also tortured while in Russian captivity, in defiance of the Geneva Convention. Two died while one survived to recount the horrors he suffered.
Tamila Tasheva, Ukraine’s special envoy for Crimea, estimated that at least 600 people had disappeared from Kherson.
Meanwhile, a pro-Russian vlogger accused of potential war crimes in Ukraine has been placed on a sanctions list by the UK Government. Graham Phillips, 43, had his assets frozen in Britain for conducting a menacing interview with battered captive Aiden Aslin, a Briton who served with Ukrainian forces.
Phillips, who grew up in Perth and studied at Dundee University, subjected Mr Aslin to taunts about potentially facing the death penalty.
The vlogger, who claims to be an ‘independent’ journalist and has interviewed several PoWs, is accused of producing media content that ‘supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine’.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: ‘We will continue to impose harsh sanctions on those who are trying to legitimise Putin’s illegal invasion until Ukraine prevails.’