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.
