Torture, sexual assault in Kherson camps: Report reveals genocide-like atrocities on Ukrainian detainees

By Sunita Iyer | First Published Aug 2, 2023, 12:39 PM IST

Almost half of Ukrainian detainees held in camps in Kherson have been subjected to torture and sexual violence, according to new research by an international human rights law firm.

An international human rights law firm's new research has exposed that nearly half of the Ukrainian detainees held in Kherson camps were subjected to torture and sexual violence. The study, conducted by Global Rights Compliance's Mobile Justice Team, involved analyzing cases from over 35 identified detention centers. The findings revealed that Russian guards in the occupied region frequently employed suffocation, waterboarding, electrocution, beatings, and threats of rape as common techniques of torture. The team reviewed the stories of 320 individuals who were held in Kherson in collaboration with Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG). Shockingly, 43 per cent of the detainees reported experiencing torture during their time in detention.

The victims held in these centers included volunteers, activists, medical leaders, teachers, community leaders, law enforcement, and military personnel.

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Wayne Jordash KC, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Global Rights Compliance, expressed concern that the revealed torture and sexual violence tactics align with a plan to extinguish Ukrainian identity, evoking crimes reminiscent of genocide.

"The torture and sexual violence tactics the Office of the Prosecution is uncovering from the Kherson detention centres suggests that Putin's plan to extinguish Ukrainian identity includes a range of crimes evocative of genocide. At the very least, the pattern that we are observing is consistent with a cynical and calculated plan to humiliate and terrorise millions of Ukrainian citizens in order to subjugate them to the diktat of the Kremlin," Jordash said.

Global Rights Compliance, a global human rights legal firm and organisation, established the Mobile Justice Team in April 2022 as a component of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA), which is supported by the UK, EU, and US. Wayne Jordash KC, a well-known British barrister, serves as its leader. The EU provides the bulk of funding for the team's CRSV work.

Their investigation turned up fresh proof of horrifying sexual abuse carried out by Russian forces in the detention facilities, including genital electrocution, threats of genital mutilation, and being made to watch another detainee being raped with a foreign object. According to reports, a single Russian soldier gave orders to electrocute 17 different victims in several detention facilities.

The evidence of atrocities has been mounting, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Russia of war crimes in Kherson as early as November 2022. Mass graves have also been discovered across Ukraine since the war's start in February the previous year. Global Rights Compliance highlighted the reported patterns of rape and sexual crimes across Ukraine, suggesting a premeditated plan on a systemic level.

Anna Mykytenko, Senior Legal Adviser and Ukraine Country Manager, Global Rights Compliance said, "The true scale of Russia's war crimes remains unknown, but what we can say for certain is that the psychological consequences of these cruel crimes on Ukrainian people will be engrained in their minds for years to come. What we are witnessing in Kherson is just the tip of the iceberg in Putin's barbaric plan to obliterate an entire population. Justice will be served for Ukrainian survivors as we continue our mission to identify and hold perpetrators accountable. Impunity is not an option."

The pursuit of the perpetrators is actively underway, and in February 2023, Global Rights Compliance revealed financial records linking the torture chambers directly to the Russian State. In April, Ukrainian power plant workers alleged they were tortured by Russian invaders after refusing to cooperate during the occupation.

Workers at a Ukrainian power plant said in April that Russian invaders had tortured them for refusing to 'assist' during the occupation the previous year. Workers at the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Russian-occupied Enerhodar described how the invading forces brutalised them.

"I had bruises and blood down my face. I'd been beaten around the head and body with a rubber baton... they held a pistol with rubber bullets about a metre or two from my leg and fired," an anonymous alleged victim told The Times.

Some reported that during the occupation, Russian forces had slain their coworkers. The Zaporizhzhia power plant had 11,000 workers when Russian forces occupied it on February 24, 2022, the first day of the conflict.

Separately, Russian forces forced 367 people into a school basement in occupied Yahidne, where 11 of them died after being kept there for almost a month. Survivors reported deaths due to lack of oxygen in the small cellar. Wayne Jordash KC emphasised that there is no doubt Russian forces were working according to a plan, intending to destroy Ukraine as a nation through a campaign of international crimes.

"Over 450 civilians met their untimely deaths and hundreds more were disappeared, tortured, sexually violated or injured during the almost one month of occupation at the hands of this brutal force. The Russian plan for Bucha is now as clear as day: they wanted to eliminate any semblance of Ukrainian resistance and identity in the town, and they were willing to stop at nothing – terrorism, torture and indiscriminate murder of civilians included – to achieve this goal," he added.

Ukrainian prosecutors have registered 85,000 Russian war crimes since the war began. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin's arrest over war crimes in March, but its jurisdiction depends on the ratification of the Rome Statute by the involved countries. Ukraine has signed but not yet ratified the treaty, while Russia withdrew its signature in 2016.

Global Rights Compliance, founded in 2013, is a human rights law firm and foundation specializing in international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and business and human rights. The Mobile Justice Team is providing expertise and support to Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General, consisting of Ukrainian and foreign expert investigators and lawyers.

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