According to information released today by a legal team, Russian military seized individuals in southern Ukraine using a variety of tactics, including rape, suffocation, waterboarding, and severe beatings.
According to Global Rights Compliance, almost half of those housed in the now infamous “torture chambers” in the port city of Kherson suffered such treatment.
The horrifying sexual crimes committed by soldiers were made clear by the evidence gathered from the more than 35 dungeons.
Their methods included rape with a foreign object covered in a condom and genital electrocutions.
This data suggests a “systematic plan to not only degrade and humiliate prisoners but also to eradicate Ukrainian identity,” according to Anna Mykytenko, a senior legal adviser at the firm, who spoke to Metro.co.uk.
She emphasised that “sexual violence has been used against Ukrainian people from all sections of society and continues to be used.”
This atrocity, along with others, shows how little regard Russian forces fighting on Ukrainian soil have for international law.
Without a question, the experiences that survivors of these horrors had in the prison facilities left them with permanent mental scars.
It may be challenging to bring culprits to justice, but she emphasised that this process is “well underway”.
“What we are seeing in Kherson is only the beginning of Putin’s heinous scheme to exterminate an entire population,” stated Ms. Mykytenko.
As we carry out our commitment to find and punish offenders, justice will be served for Ukrainians. There is no room for impunity.”
The Mobile Justice Team, comprised of prosecutors, solicitors and analysts, was established by the Global Rights Compliance in April 2022 to look into and prosecute war crimes in Ukraine.