Almost half of the 229 Russian POWs who we interviewed spoke of being tortured or ill-treated by members of Ukrainian armed forces and the SBU, and to a lesser extent penitentiary staff. The majority of these cases occurred during the initial stages of apprehension and interrogation. POWs were beaten, shot in the legs, stabbed in their limbs, electrocuted, subjected to mock executions, threats of sexual violence or death. In permanent places of internment, such as pre-trial facilities, or the POW camp, reports of mistreatment were significantly less. We still received, however, complaints of beatings in some of these facilities in Dnipro, Vinnytsia and Kharkiv last spring.


