Up to 90% of Ukrainian POWs in Russia were tortured or sexually abused

This was stated by Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin at an event organised by the European Policy Centre in Brussels, Radio Liberty reports.

This data was collected during the investigation of war crimes, the prosecutor general said.

‘In addition to being a war crime, this is a long-term trauma with a number of negative side effects... Russia simply aims to collectively punish Ukrainian prisoners of war for their service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. For defending Ukrainian land and our freedom,’ Kostin said.

He added that civilians captured by the Russian Federation also face similar treatment.

‘We have more than 4,000 criminal proceedings on the abduction and illegal detention of civilians. Such places continue to exist in the occupied territories as an example of the persecution policy planned and implemented by Russia against Ukrainians with the sole purpose of destroying the Ukrainian identity,’ the Prosecutor General stressed.

The investigation has identified 421 suspects of ill-treatment of prisoners, and 307 people have been charged, Kostin summed up.

• On October 1, the media spread information about the alleged execution of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian troops. The video shows Ukrainian servicemen under the control of Russian troops coming out of a forest belt. When the prisoners of war lined up in a row, the Russian forces deliberately opened fire on them. Later, the Office of the Prosecutor General opened criminal proceedings over the incident.
• On October 15, the Office of the Prosecutor General reported that it had identified 13 of the 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war who had been shot by Russians in the Pokrovsk sector.