First there were mass graves in Bucha, mass destruction in Irpin, and then “dungeons” in Kherson, which were not only for adults. Ukrainian investigators discovered a “children’s cell” in Kherson where they claimed minors were kept and tortured during the Russian occupation.
The reconquest of Ukrainian cities once under Russian rule has helped expose the brutality of Putin’s troops. It was already known that torture was part of the horror equation, what was not yet known was that children were also a target.
Ukrainian investigators found a “children’s torture chamber” in the recaptured city of Kherson. This was announced on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada Dmitry Lubinets.
According to residents of the area, the torture of children consisted of “psychological abuse”, when minors were manipulated into believing that their parents had abandoned them and that they would not return home. The children continued to have limited access to water and were starving, said Dmitry Lubinets, quoted by the British newspaper The Guardian.
“Children’s cell” – this is how the Russian soldiers called this place – the Ukrainians, also contained in the building, described it as damp. The only difference between the “children’s cell” and other prisoners was that they were allowed to lie on three “thin” mats.
“This is the first time we have documented the torture of children,” the human rights ombudsman said. “I thought that after what happened in Bucha and Irpen, the bottom would not be reached, but in Kherson we really hit the bottom,” he complained, saying that among the victims was a 14-year-old boy who was arrested and tortured. for photographing damaged Russian equipment.
However, Dmitry Lubinets did not specify how long the children were kept and whether there were deaths.
According to the Kyiv Independent, Moscow illegally deported more than 13,000 children to Russia. But Daria Gerasimchuk, adviser to the President of Ukraine on children’s rights and rehabilitation, stressed that “this, unfortunately, is not the final figure.”
At the moment, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has established four places of torture in Kherson, a city recaptured by Kyiv troops on November 11. Prisoners were tortured with electric shocks, but there are also reports of executions and beatings with iron bars.
UN counts at least 441 Russian war crimes
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday released a report documenting the killing of at least 441 civilians in Ukraine, which could amount to war crimes.
According to the same source, the total of 441 civilians killed by Russian forces includes 341 men, 72 women and 28 children (20 boys and eight girls).
“There are good reasons to believe that the summary executions documented in the report may constitute deliberate killings, a war crime,” Turk said, presenting the document at a special session of the Human Rights Council on Ukraine.
The report, which details one hundred of these killings, was prepared after three field visits and focused, in particular, on violations committed between February 24 and April 6 in 102 cities in the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions.
“In some cases, Russian soldiers executed civilians in makeshift detention facilities, and in other cases they did so in their homes, backyards, porches or checkpoints on the ground,” the High Commissioner said.
Putin has repeatedly consulted with Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about the invasion, Europa Press told Ukraine’s chief intelligence director Vadim Skibitsky.
According to Skibitsky, it was the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is responsible for counterintelligence and espionage work, that put pressure on Gerasimov and other military agencies to agree to launch an offensive. .
However, according to the Ukrainian intelligence services, the FSB considered that by the end of February sufficient preparations had already been made to guarantee the success of the Russian Armed Forces in a lightning invasion.
However, according to Kyiv, the Russian General Staff provided the Russian troops with supplies and ammunition for only three days, hoping that the offensive would be swift and immediately successful.
The head of Ukrainian intelligence also emphasized the cooperation of local residents, who always provided the Ukrainian authorities with up-to-date information about the Russian army, such as the number of soldiers or the exact location of troops.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
A Stockholm court on Monday sentenced a former Swedish intelligence officer to life in prison for spying for Russia, and his brother to at least 12 years in prison. In what is considered one of the most serious cases in Swedish counterintelligence history, much of the trial took place behind closed doors in the name of national security.
According to the prosecution, it was Russian military intelligence, the GRU, who took advantage of the information provided by the two brothers between 2011 and their arrest at the end of 2021.
Peyman Kia, 42, has held many senior positions in the Swedish security apparatus, including the army and his country’s intelligence services (Säpo). His younger brother, Payam, 35, is accused of “participating in the planning” of the plot and of “managing contacts with Russia and the GRU, including passing on information and receiving financial rewards.”
Both men deny the charges, and their lawyers have demanded an acquittal on charges of “aggravated espionage,” according to the Swedish news agency TT.
The trial coincides with another case of alleged Russian espionage, with the arrest of the Russian-born couple in late November in a suburb of Stockholm by a police team arriving at dawn in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Research website Bellingcat identified them as Sergei Skvortsov and Elena Kulkova. The couple allegedly acted as sleeper agents for Moscow, having moved to Sweden in the late 1990s.
According to Swedish press reports, the couple ran companies specializing in the import and export of electronic components and industrial technology.
The man was again detained at the end of November for “illegal intelligence activities.” His partner, suspected of being an accomplice, has been released but remains under investigation.
According to Swedish authorities, the arrests are not related to the trial of the Kia brothers.
“They can strengthen their positions. We understand that this can happen. At the same time, we do not rule out that they will announce a general mobilization,” Danilov said in an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.
Danilov believed that this mobilization would also be convened “to exterminate as many as possible” of Russian citizens, so that “they would no longer have any problems on their territory.”
In this sense, Danilov also reminded that Russia has not given up on securing control over Kyiv or the idea of the complete “destruction” of Ukraine. “We have to be ready for anything,” he said.
“I want everyone to understand that [os russos] they have not given up on the idea of destroying our nation. If they don’t have Kyiv in their hands, they won’t have anything in their hands, we must understand this,” continued Danilov, who also did not rule out that a new Russian offensive would come from “Belarus and other territories.” .
As such, Danilov praised the decision of many of its residents who chose to stay in the Ukrainian capital when the war broke out in order to defend the city.
“They expected that there would be panic, that people would run, that there would be nothing to protect Kyiv,” he added, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees to European countries, which is why the UN classifies this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945). gg.). ).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.
The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
The UN has presented as confirmed 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.
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