[ad_1]
The wife of a Ukrainian fighter imprisoned by Russia called for his release on Tuesday after a U.N. human rights official said monitors had documented cases of torture of Ukrainian prisoners, including two fatalities.
Some Ukrainian soldiers were released last month after a weeks-long siege in the fighting in the city of Mariupol finally surrendered in May. Others trapped at the port city’s besieged Azovstal steel plant, however, remain captive, including the husband of 24-year-old former data research analyst Liliia Stupina, who quit her job to seek her release.
Also read | Vladimir Putin is pushing these countries to back his Ukraine war
“That’s why we’re here: to say to the world that the world should save them, the world should free them, because of these heroes, they’re in hell now, they’re in hell in Azovstal for 86 days, they’re in hell in Russian captivity ,” Stupina, who co-founded the “Family Association of Defenders of Azov Starr,” told Reuters shortly before speaking to the UN Human Rights Council.
“Today, more than ever, the United Nations must demonstrate its ability to protect human rights,” she told the Geneva-based agency, which is meeting to discuss Ukraine.
At the same meeting, a U.N. official described a “horrific report” of torture of captured Ukrainian fighters, documenting it as part of a broader report on the human rights situation in Ukraine. This includes reports of the killing of civilians, sexual violence, and the treatment of prisoners of war.
“In the majority of documented cases Ukrainian prisoners of war were tortured or ill-treated by the detaining authorities,” Christian Salazar Volkmann, director of field operations at the UN Human Rights Office, told the council.
“In two of those cases, Ukrainian soldiers were tortured to death,” he said.
Russian envoy Guzal Khusanova called the findings “one-sided and uneven”. OHCHR also said it documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces, but on a “smaller scale”.
OHCHR said its report was based on information gathered through 78 field visits, 20 visits to places of detention, and more than 1,000 interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations, their relatives, lawyers and government officials .
Russia, suspended from voting at the Human Rights Council over Ukraine’s invasion, denies torture or other forms of ill-treatment of prisoners of war. Moscow said its forces in Ukraine were conducting a “special military operation” to disarm the country and weed out far-right nationalists it sees as a threat to Russia’s own security.
[ad_2]
Source link