Current:Home > FinanceRussians committing rape, 'widespread' torture against Ukrainians, UN report finds -BeyondWealth Learning
Russians committing rape, 'widespread' torture against Ukrainians, UN report finds
View
Date:2025-04-16 17:41:45
Russian forces are allegedly committing continuous war crimes in Ukraine, including rape and "widespread and systematic" torture, the latest Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found.
The Russians are allegedly torturing people accused of being Ukrainian army informants in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and in one case, the torture was so extreme that it caused a victim's death, the commission said in its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.
MORE: It's a kayak with a grenade launcher. And it could be game-changer in Ukraine.
One torture survivor said, "Every time I answered that I didn't know or didn't remember something, they gave me electric shocks," according to the commission.
MORE: Bucha survivors recount 'senseless' horror as they emerge from hiding
"Well into the second year of the armed conflict, people in Ukraine have been continuing to cope with the loss and injury of loved ones, large-scale destruction, suffering and trauma as well as economic hardship that have resulted from it," Eric Mose, chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, wrote in the report. "Thousands have been killed and injured, and millions remain internally displaced or out of the country."
In the Kherson region, members of the Russian forces allegedly sexually assaulted women as their relatives were forced to listen from nearby rooms, the commission said. Sexual assault victims ranged in age from 19 to 83.
The commission also found evidence of "unlawful attacks with explosive weapons," including attacks on residential buildings, shops, a restaurant and a medical facility.
Konstantin Yefremov, a senior Russian army lieutenant who fled Russia, told ABC News in February he witnessed his country's troops torture prisoners in Ukraine, including beating and threats to rape.
Yefremov, 33, spent three months as an officer in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region and said he personally witnessed the torture of Ukrainian prisoners during interrogations, including the shooting of one POW in the arms and legs and threats of rape.
The commission stressed "the need for accountability" for Russia's "scale and gravity of violations," as well as "the need for the Ukrainian authorities to expeditiously and thoroughly investigate the few cases of violations by its own forces."
ABC News' Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
veryGood! (34)
Related
- Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
- A judge has found Ohio’s new election law constitutional, including a strict photo ID requirement
- Musk's X signs content deals with Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard and Jim Rome
- No charges to be filed in death of toddler who fell into cistern during day care at Vermont resort
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Pope Francis blasts surrogacy as deplorable practice that turns a child into an object of trafficking
- American Fiction is a rich story — but is it a successful satire?
- China says it will launch its next lunar explorer in the first half of this year
- Gen. Mark Milley's security detail and security clearance revoked, Pentagon says
- Walmart experiments with AI to enhance customers' shopping experiences
Ranking
- Nevada attorney general revives 2020 fake electors case
- When and where stargazers can see the full moon, meteor showers and eclipses in 2024
- Kate Middleton's Pre-Royal Style Resurfaces on TikTok: From Glitzy Halter Tops to Short Dresses
- As Maryland’s General Assembly Session Opens, Environmental Advocates Worry About Funding for the State’s Bold Climate Goals
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- China says it will launch its next lunar explorer in the first half of this year
- Following her release, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard is buying baby clothes 'just in case'
- Adan Canto, 'Designated Survivor' and 'X-Men' star, dies at 42 after cancer battle
Recommendation
EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
South Korean opposition leader released from hospital a week after being stabbed in the neck
Boy George reveals he's on Mounjaro for weight loss in new memoir: 'Isn't everyone?'
Jimmy John's Kickin' Ranch is leaving. Here's how you can get a bottle of it for 1 cent.
Bodycam footage shows high
What does 'highkey' mean? Get to know the Gen-Z lingo and how to use it.
Unsealing of documents related to decades of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls concludes
A judge has found Ohio’s new election law constitutional, including a strict photo ID requirement