Torture executed against Ukrainian civilians reflects Russia’s ‘war state policy’: UN expert

• the UN special rapporteur on torture witnesses shared accounts that were credible, and that confirmed a consistent pattern of torture, including rape and beatings. 
• This is not random, aberrant behaviour, this is orchestrated as part of state policy to intimidate, instill fear or punish to extract information and confessions.”- The expert said. 
• Her comments were one of the strongest condemnations implicating the Russian leadership by an independent expert since Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. 
• Of hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia and released in exchange, Ukrainian officials have said 90 percent suffered torture, including sexual violence, the expert said. 
• “Russian authorities have failed so far to send a directive to their soldiers and the military command informing them that torture and such types of detentions and interrogations are not acceptable,”

Torture perpetrated by Russian officers against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war has reached such a level that it is clearly a systematic, state-endorsed policy, a United Nations expert on torture said.

Witnesses shared accounts that were credible, said Alice Jill Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture, and that confirmed a consistent pattern of torture, including rape and beatings, in different detention facilities under Russian occupation and among Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces. She spoke in an interview on Saturday as she wrapped up a seven-day visit to Ukraine.

“This is not random, aberrant behaviour,” Edwards said. “This is orchestrated as part of state policy to intimidate, instill fear or punish to extract information and confessions.”

Her comments were one of the strongest condemnations implicating the Russian leadership by an independent expert since Russia’s full-scale invasion last year. She said she had reached out to Russian authorities at least seven times since receiving her mandate a year ago, drawing attention to the behavior of its troops and personnel in its detention facilities, but had received no response. Moscow has denied it practices torture, she said, but its refusal to address the issue, and the accumulating cases, amounted to tacit approval of its use.

“Russian authorities have failed so far to send a directive to their soldiers and the military command informing them that torture and such types of detentions and interrogations are not acceptable,” she said. “They deny they do it, but show me the military directive where torture is prohibited.”

Last week she made public details of four individuals who had told her they were tortured while detained under Russian occupation in the region of Izium in northeastern Ukraine last year. Ukraine has opened 103,000 general cases for prosecution related to the conflict, she said.

Of hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia and released in exchange, Ukrainian officials have said 90 percent suffered torture, including sexual violence, she said.

“Russian authorities have failed so far to send a directive to their soldiers and the military command informing them that torture and such types of detentions and interrogations are not acceptable,” she said. “They deny they do it, but show me the military directive where torture is prohibited.”

Last week she made public details of four individuals who had told her they were tortured while detained under Russian occupation in the region of Izium in northeastern Ukraine last year. Ukraine has opened 103,000 general cases for prosecution related to the conflict, she said.

(With inputs from agencies)