A new report from the United Nations, which will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council next month, details the brutal torture methods employed by the Russian military in Ukraine.
According to the report, which examined 10 cases of assaults against Ukrainian civilians in Russian-occupied territory, the Russian military is implementing several torture methods against Ukrainians.
This includes various forms of sexual assault, including gang rapes and beatings, and one called a “call to Putin” or a “call to Lenin” that involves connecting wires from a Soviet-era field telephone to a victim’s fingers, ears, feet, and genitalia to shock them with 80 volts of electricity.
The report’s author, U.N. torture expert Alice Jill Edwards, told The Telegraph that “the scale is really off the charts about how many people who are detained are subjected to some form of degrading or inhumane treatment.”
She noted that often torture was used to obtain information from victims or to coerce them into signing false confessions. Edwards also said she was unable to find any orders from the military command to stop the torture, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top-ranking officials bear the responsibility for condoning it.
“At no time have I seen directives from the hierarchy for Russian soldiers and others to stop torturing,” Edwards said. “That’s what I’ve asked for. Those directives do not exist.
“It’s not only on an individual level; this is widespread and systematic, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“It is the level of the state; it’s Putin himself and [Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov who have responsibility for these types of policies. The Russian state itself will be held accountable. Torture remains part of, in my view, Russian war tactics and war policy.”
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