Nearly half of Ukrainians held in detention centers in Kherson by Russian forces were subjected to widespread torture, including sexual violence, according to a new report published on Wednesday.
The report, compiled by the Mobile Justice Team, part of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) sponsored by the United Kingdom, European Union and United States, was created by the law firm and international human rights foundation, Global Rights Compliance, in April 2022 .
The new report reveals the analysis of an initial set of 320 cases of detention in Kherson, in more than 35 identified centers.
Of those victims, both men and women, at least 43% explicitly mentioned torture practices in detention centers, citing sexual violence as a common tactic imposed on them by Russian guards, with preliminary results showing that the military were the most likely to suffer torture.
One of the report’s authors says those with military families were also targeted.
“Much is just punishment, and in addition to punishment for actual military service [de seu familiar]is also punishment, it seems, for actually being a Ukrainian citizen,” he told CNN Anna Mykytenko Senior Legal Counsel and Ukraine Country Manager for Global Rights Compliance.
At least 36 victims in the analyzed group mentioned the use of electrocution during interrogations by Russian guards, often in the genital areas.
Other victims mentioned threats of genital mutilation, and at least one victim was forced to witness the rape of another detainee by a foreign object covered in a condom.
“With regard to men, most crimes are sexualized torture, and this is usually torture of the genitals, so it is a form of punishment [por ser ucraniano] and it sort of prevents them from having children,” adds Mykytenko.
Plan to extinguish Ukrainian identity
The report adds that suffocation, simulated drowning, severe beatings and threats of rape were other techniques commonly used against victims by Russian guards in Kherson’s torture chambers, according to the specialized unit.
Mykytenko says these patterns of rape and torture point to a Russian intent to eradicate Ukrainian identity.
“There is a kind of intention to destroy or eliminate Ukrainian identity because in some cases it can be seen that those captured or sometimes almost hunted had Ukrainian flags or other symbols of the state,” he said.
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The lawyer Wayne Jordan managing partner and co-founder of Global Rights Compliance, shared a similar view, saying the sexual violence tactics being uncovered underscore Putin’s plan to extinguish Ukrainian identity and include a range of crimes that evoke genocide.
“At the very least, the pattern we are seeing is consistent with a cynical and calculated plan to humiliate and terrorize millions of Ukrainian citizens in order to subjugate them to the Kremlin’s edict,” he said in a statement accompanying the report.
Mykytenko believes that some of the patterns seen in Kherson could eventually be considered genocidal, although she acknowledges that it is difficult to prove.
Russia has denied allegations of torture and human rights abuses in Ukraine, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary investigated, compiled and shared by international human rights and news organizations.
Russian officials have yet to comment on the report.
Source: CNN Brasil
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