A Ukrainian serviceman released from Russian captivity during a prisoner exchange hugs a crying woman searching for her missing loved ones in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine, on May 23, 2025.
Report
December 11, 2025

Russia’s Systematic Torture of Ukrainian POWs

(Kyiv, December 11, 2025) – Russian authorities and military forces have systematically tortured and ill-treated Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) at the time of their capture and throughout their detention, Human Rights Watch said today. Such abuses constitute grave violations of the Geneva Conventions that apply in international armed conflict and are war crimes.

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