An investigation by the Associated Press has revealed that Russian torture of residents and soldiers alike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium was random, pervasive, and completely routine.
In the Kharkiv region, the agency found 10 locations of Russian torture and met with 15 survivors as well as two families whose loved ones vanished. Two of the men were frequently taken and mistreated.
One battered, unconscious Ukrainian soldier was displayed to his wife to force her to provide the information she simply didn’t have.
The AP also confirmed eight men killed under torture in Russian custody, according to survivors and families. All but one were civilians.
At a mass grave site created by the Russians and discovered in the woods of Izium, at least 30 of the 447 bodies recently excavated bore visible marks of torture — bound hands, close gunshot wounds and broken limbs, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
Those injuries corresponded to the descriptions of the pain inflicted upon the survivors.
Ukrainian intelligence officers said women were held in a garage near Russian soldiers’ quarters where they were raped regularly.
A physician who treated hundreds of Izium’s injured during the Russian occupation said people regularly arrived with injuries consistent with torture, including gunshots to their hands and feet, broken bones, and severe bruising.
“Even if people came to the hospital, the silence was the norm,” chief Dr. Yuriy Kuznetsov said.
Torture in any form during an armed conflict is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, whether of prisoners of war or civilians.