I misplaced hope and can to dwell in Russian jail, says Ukraine prisoner of warfare | EUROtoday

Latest graphic findings from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine – created by the Human Rights Council two years in the past – spotlight the continued grave affect of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

“I lost any hope and the will to live,” one Ukrainian soldier and former prisoner of warfare advised the Commission of Inquiry, describing how he had been “repeatedly subjected to torture and left with broken bones, broken teeth and gangrene” on an injured foot.

After making an attempt to kill himself at a jail within the city of Donskoy in Tula area, south of Moscow, the soldier recounted how his captors “subjected him to further beating”, stated Erik Møse, Commission Chair.

“Victims’ accounts disclose relentless, brutal treatment inflicting severe pain and suffering during prolonged detention, with blatant disregard for human dignity. This has led to long-lasting physical and mental trauma,” he advised journalists in Geneva.

“They beat him on his buttocks in the isolation ward, causing bleeding from his anus,” the investigators reported. “In the yard, they beat him on his face and injured foot, leading to bleeding. They knocked out some of his teeth. He begged them to kill him.”

Erik Møse, Chair of Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine (centre), Commissioner Vrinda Grover (left) and moderator Todd Pitman, OHCHR, at a press convention in Geneva

Rape, beatings

Testimonies of rape and different sexual assaults in opposition to ladies “also amount to torture”, the Commissioners maintained, pointing to threats of rape in opposition to male prisoners of warfare and using electrical shocks meant to harm or humiliate detainees.

“There were beatings, verbal abuse, electronic devices being used on areas, body parts, there was very limited access to food, water necessities,’ Mr. Møse continued. “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 – enables us to use the word ‘horrific’”.

Graphic testimony

The 20-page report depends on testimonies from a whole lot of people with a view to examine all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation dedicated by Russian forces and authorities.

The publication focuses on the siege and indiscriminate bombardment of Mariupol on the outset of the invasion, using torture and rape in opposition to civilians, prisoners of warfare and alleged collaborators, the illegal switch of 46 youngsters from a care facility in Kherson to Russian-occupied Crimea in October 2022 and the destruction and harm of protected cultural treasures.

“The evidence shows that Russian authorities have committed violation of international human rights and international humanitarian law and corresponding war crimes,” insisted Commissioner Vrinda Grover. “Further investigations are required to determine whether some of the situations identified may constitute crimes against humanity.”

Mariupol and the ‘road to death’

Detailing the ordeal endured by all these besieged within the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Mariupol, the report famous how survivors emerged from shelters and “recalled seeing large number of dead bodies on the streets in the rubble of their houses and in the cities’ hospitals”.

At least 58 medical centres had been destroyed together with 11 energy stations, the investigators stated, including that ladies who fled on foot from the entrance line known as it “the road to death” and expressed a “pervasive feeling of fear”.

“Often, Russian armed forces failed to take feasible precautions to verify that the affected objects are not civilian,” maintained the rights specialists, who work in an impartial capability and should not UN workers.

Genocidal intent considerations

Confirming persevering with deep considerations about allegations of genocidal intent by the invading forces, Ms. Grover stated the Human Rights Council-mandated probe would “look further” into possible “direct and public incitement to commit genocide” by Russian media.

“We have gone through a large number of such statements and have found that many of them used are using dehumanizing language and calls for hate, violence and destruction,” she stated. “And we are concerned with statements supporting the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, calling for the killing of a large number of persons.”

The report is because of be offered to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday 19 March. Watch the launch in Geneva right here: https://webtv.un.org/en/schedule/2024-03-19