Source: Media Initiative for Human Rights citing the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War
Details: The MIHR notes that the actual number of deceased prisoners is likely much higher. The organization has gathered testimonies from 122 Ukrainian soldiers who were held captive by Russia. These accounts describe systematic torture, isolation from the outside world, and the denial of adequate medical care.
Verbatim: "Many defenders remain in Russian captivity, some since the early months of the full-scale war, which means over 30 months. Russia does not allow representatives from monitoring missions, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross, to access them, nor does it inform Ukraine about the deterioration of health or deaths of the prisoners. All of this constitutes serious violations of the Geneva Conventions."
Details: Documenters have also recorded numerous instances of prisoner deaths due to inhumane conditions and torture in places of detention.
Among the 169 bodies of servicemen who died in captivity and were returned to Ukraine, 55 were specifically those who died from explosions at the Olenivka colony.
Background:
- The independent international UN commission investigating violations in Ukraine has found new evidence of torture by Russia against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war in occupied territories. Occupiers act in a coordinated manner across all detention facilities and regularly employ sexual violence.
- According to the report from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Russians systematically torture and mistreat Ukrainian prisoners of war.
- Torture methods include beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, asphyxiation, prolonged confinement in stress positions, forced excessive physical exertion, sleep deprivation, mock executions, and threats.
- According to data from the Office of the Prosecutor General, the number of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the occupiers has increased over the past year: these crimes are not isolated incidents but rather a deliberate state policy of the aggressor country.