New reports have been published documenting war crimes in Ukraine. Yesterday a UN commission described an “array of war crimes, violations of human rights and international humanitarian law” during the ongoing war in the country. “Russian armed forces are responsible for the vast majority of the violations identified, including war crimes,” the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded, based on investigations in February and March 2022 in the regions Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy. “Given the gravity of the identified violations, there is an undeniable need for accountability.”
Human Rights Watch published new research and a video today, documenting torture of detainees in Izium, a city in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine. Survivors described being subjected to electric shock, waterboarding, severe beatings, threats at gunpoint, and being forced to hold stress positions for extended periods. They identified at least seven locations in the city, including two schools, where they said soldiers had detained and abused them.
In late September and early October, HRW spoke with more than 100 people in Izium who were there during the Russian occupation of the city, from March to early September 2022. Almost all said they had a family member or friend who had been tortured, and 15 people, 14 men and one woman, described being tortured. One of the men had ties to the armed forces but the rest were civilians.
“The cruel violence and abuse in Izium were not random incidents,” says my colleague Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at HRW. “Multiple victims shared credible accounts with us of similar experiences of torture during interrogation in facilities under the control of Russian forces and their subordinates, indicating this treatment was part of a policy and plan.”