GENEVA — U.N.-backed human rights experts said Friday they have gathered new evidence of “horrific” torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war by their Russian jailers, saying such practices could amount to war crimes.
The Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said human rights violations have been widespread since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade the country more than two years ago, and that civilian suffering from the war continues to mount.
“New evidence strengthens the commission's previous findings that torture used by Russian authorities in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation has been widespread and systematic,” the commission said in its latest report, citing “horrific treatment” of POWs at several sites in Russia.
Last July, The Associated Press reported that thousands of Ukrainian civilians were being held in Russian prisons and subjected to systematic torture and slave labor. The AP report also cited a Russian government document from January last year outlining Moscow's plans to create dozens of new prison colonies and detention centers in occupied Ukraine through 2026.
Commission chair Erik Mose said the torture takes many forms including beating, verbal abuse, electric shocks, and limited access to food and water.
“The whole treatment of the prisoners of war and the picture drawn up emerging from the way they were dealt with, how they were treated over long periods — months –…
