Kathrine Frich
Current human rights laws simply fail to protect these captives.
Returning home from war usually brings immense relief. But for some soldiers, the darkest nightmares happen far from the battlefield.
New testimonies are exposing a grim system operating quietly behind closed doors.
Systemic abuse
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, recently unveiled a terrifying new report detailing wartime captivity.
Officials have documented 695 distinct forms of torture used against captives, according to LA.LV.
Released soldiers report a massive network of physical and mental abuse. Lubinets explained that injured fighters often face targeted beatings on their wounds instead of receiving medical care.
Unimaginable cruelty
Investigators verified 186 different detention camps across Russia and the occupied territories. Some of these bleak facilities sit deep in remote Siberia.
Guards frequently use extreme exhaustion and animals as weapons against the terrified captives.
“Prisoners of war are strangled, beaten, electrocuted, dogs are thrown at them, and they are sometimes forced to stand in one place for up to 18 hours. As soon as you start to squat, they immediately start physically beating you,” Lubinets noted.
The barber method
One specific method of abuse completely shocked human rights observers. It involves mutilating prisoners during routine grooming.
“One of the forms of torture, they are all shocking, but, for example, there is the so-called barber. This is when, during shaving, not only hair is specially cut off, but pieces of skin from the head. And if a person starts screaming, they are immediately physically beaten again and electroshocked,” the ombudsman revealed.
He blasted global leaders for choosing financial gain and trade over human lives.
A global failure
The ombudsman warned that ignoring these brutal acts only encourages further violence.
“If the world doesn’t understand that this is a signal for Russia to continue, a signal that it can do absolutely anything to anyone and there will be no punishment for it, then that is the main problem of the modern world,” he stated.
Current human rights laws simply fail to protect these captives.
“And the name of this country is the Russian Federation. No international instrument operates there. And we need to talk about this today and look for additional opportunities to influence the Russian Federation,” Lubinets concluded.
Sources: LA.LV
