Russian media distort UN report on prisoner mistreatment

Pro-Kremlin media have raised alarms, claiming that half of the Russian prisoners were tortured in Ukraine. This is a manipulation. The UN report does mention incidents, but after the prisoners were transported to internment sites, torture was not confirmed. Meanwhile, Russian media fail to mention the brutality against Ukrainians.

Russian media, citing UN findings, accuse Ukraine of torturing half of the Russian military personnel taken captive. This is a serious allegation, given that the torture of war prisoners is considered a war crime. However, as analysts point out, Russian publications have made significant distortions and abuses.

The latest UN report noted cases of improper treatment of Russian prisoners, but these incidents occurred only during the transport from the front to assignment locations, and the conditions in the camps complied with international standards.

The Russian news agency Ria Novosti referred to the report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which covered the period from March to August 2023. During this time, confidential interviews were conducted with 205 Russian prisoners of war held by Ukraine. About 104 of them, or roughly half, claimed they were "mistreated, even tortured," including severe beatings, death threats, or electric shocks. However, the report noted that these cases only occurred during transportation.

The UN mission had access to prisoner camps and found that the conditions of detainees in them seemed to comply with international standards, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Russian media overlooked this part of the report and focused solely on the negative aspects of prisoner treatment during transit.

A disproportionate scale of violence is observed in the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russian camps. The same UN report analyzed the situation of 174 Ukrainians, of whom 169 experienced torture and brutality. They reported "severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, suffocation, prolonged stress positions, forced excessive exercise, sleep deprivation," as well as mock executions and threats of violence. This is a blatant violation of human rights, and the scale of violence was significantly greater than that alleged against Ukraine — which Russian media failed to mention.

A particularly drastic example is a 22-year-old Ukrainian soldier, Yuri Gulchuk, who, as a result of torture experienced in Russian captivity, lost the ability to speak. Russian disinformation blamed this condition on Ukrainian authorities, but this was debunked by the FakeHunter service, which found that Yuri was taken into Russian captivity after the battle for Mariupol.

Yuri Gulchuk was one of the defenders of Mariupol and was captured by the Russians after the fall of this city in April 2022. He was likely taken to a detention centre in Taganrog, where – according to accounts from other inmates – he was particularly brutally tortured by a Russian guard, including with a taser, sources report.

In addition to the mentioned physical injuries, Ukrainian prisoners often admitted that they were starved and deprived of adequate medical care in Russian captivity.

The UN assessed that torture against the Ukrainian side was a widespread practice both during interrogations and at other stages of detention. Living conditions in Russian prisoner camps were extremely poor, which – as assessed – was intended to inflict long-term pain and suffering on the victims.