Almost 6,000 Ukrainian civilians, POWs are recognized as torture victims - Prosecutor General's Office

This was announced by Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin during a telethon.

He stressed that it is impossible to name the exact number of victims, as people are held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or in Russia.

"Currently, the Prosecutor General's Office has registered more than 450 criminal proceedings on the facts of ill-treatment and torture of prisoners of war and more than 2,100 on the facts of torture of civilians. More than 3,800 civilians and more than 2,200 prisoners of war have been recognized as victims of torture and inhuman treatment," Kostin said.

He pointed out that more than 160 torture chambers and places of detention discovered in the liberated territories of Ukraine testify to the massive scale of Russian crimes. According to the Prosecutor General, most of them were recorded in Chernihiv region - 44, Kharkiv region - 25, and Zaporizhzhia region - 18.

Kostin informed that 265 people have been served with suspicions for ill-treatment of civilians, investigations have been completed and indictments against 207 people have been sent to court, while 73 war criminals have been sentenced for torture. He noted that 12 people have been notified of suspicion for crimes against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"It is difficult to identify those who commit crimes, because it mostly happens on the territory of the aggressor country. But we are working very hard to establish all the circumstances. Especially to identify those who not only commit crimes but also stand behind this evil. Those who give commands to treat our civilians and prisoners of war in this way," the Prosecutor General added.

• On June 10, media reported that the families of military personnel, civilian prisoners and missing Ukrainians would receive notifications from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War via the state-run Diia app. Previously, citizens received such notifications via SMS.