Experts Call Russian Troops Torture And Sexual Violence At Ukraine's Emergency Detention Center

JAKARTA - The majority of detainees who are in an emergency detention center in Russia's occupied southern Ukraine, were subjected to sexual torture and harassment, an international team of experts said on Wednesday in a summary of their latest findings.

The Mobile Justice team, formed by an international humanitarian law firm Compliance with Global Rights, has been working with Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors in the Kherson region since being re-arrested in November 2022, after more than eight months under Russian control.

Ukrainian authorities are reviewing more than 97,000 reports of war crimes and have filed charges against 220 suspects in domestic courts. High-level perpetrators can be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which has requested the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin itself has consistently denied allegations of war crimes in Ukraine, by troops taking part in the "special military operations" launched to protect Russia and strip its neighbors.

The latest report by Mobile Justice Team, funded by the UK, the European Union and the United States, analyzed 320 cases and witness statements at 35 locations in the Kherson region.

From the reports of the victims reviewed "43 percent explicitly mentions the practice of torture at the detention center, citing sexual violence as a common tactic forced by Russian guards", a statement said.

"The true scale of Russian war crimes is still unknown," Anna Mykytenko, senior legal adviser at Global Rights Compliance, said of the latest findings on torture.

"But what we can say with certainty is that the psychological consequences of this cruel crime against the Ukrainians will be embedded in their minds over the years to come," he explained.

At least 36 victims interviewed by prosecutors said the use of electric shocks during interrogation, frequent electric shocks in genitals, as well as the threat of genital mutilation. A victim was forced to witness the rape of another prisoner, the report said.

Prisoners who are most likely to be tortured are military personnel, he found, but law enforcement, volunteers, activists, community leaders, medical workers and teachers can also experience.

It said the most commonly used torture techniques were weak death, waterboarding, severe beatings and rape threats. Reuters was unable to verify the allegations.

Overall, evidence from the released detention center "shows Putin's plans to eliminate Ukraine's identity include a series of crimes that evoke genocide", said British lawyer Wayne Jordash, who led the team.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings of the report.

In June, Ukrainian prosecutors filed their first case on suspicion of deportation of dozens of orphans from Kherson, suing a Russian politician and two suspected Ukrainian collaborators with war crimes.

However, they did not immediately comment on the latest findings of torture.

Earlier, Reuters reported in January about the scale of alleged torture in Kherson. Ukrainian authorities said at the time about 200 people were allegedly detained illegally. Survivors said about tactics, including electric shocks and weakness.

At the time, the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to questions, including about alleged unlawful torture and detention.