UN in New York: 129 Ukrainian POWs Executed
UN Assistant Secretary-General Claudia Fuentes Julio told the Security Council over 16,000 Ukrainian civilians remain in Russian detention, and 95 percent of prisoners of war reported torture.
Delegations before the United Nations Security Council in New York heard previously unpublished figures on Monday: more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians detained during the war remain deprived of their liberty, many with no contact with the outside world and held on grounds that violate international law. Ukrainian prisoners of war whom the UN has interviewed directly report torture almost without exception. The informal session was convened by Latvia and the United Kingdom, in a body where Russia sits as a permanent member with veto power.
The figures were presented by Claudia Fuentes Julio, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. Since the invasion began, UN staff have interviewed 910 Ukrainian prisoners of war and 403 civilian detainees, in every case only after their release. More than 95 percent of the prisoners of war and 85 percent of the civilians said they had been tortured or abused, often repeatedly. They also reported sexual assault, deprivation of food and inadequate medical care. Her office assessed the torture and abuse as widespread and systematic, and said it continues today.
“The United Nations has documented the execution of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war early in their captivity and the deaths of 48 Ukrainian prisoners of war in detention.”
These deaths, the office said, resulted from torture, denial of medical care or inhumane detention conditions. The UN has not been granted access to detention facilities in Russia, so the estimate of 16,000 people does not separate adults from children.
What the released detainees told the Security Council
Juan Leyva Garcia, a Ukrainian soldier born in Mariupol to a Ukrainian mother and a Cuban father, was among the defenders of Azovstal who surrendered to Russian forces in May 2022. He spent 1,183 days in captivity. When released, he weighed 55 kilograms, and he showed Council members a photograph of his body. He said he was beaten and humiliated more than other prisoners: because of his Cuban background he was suspected of being a foreign mercenary, and because he had studied in the United States he was suspected of being an American spy.
“The Russians were enraged that someone with a connection to Cuba, which they consider an ally, was fighting against their occupying army.”
Garcia still serves in the Ukrainian army. He also said two of his friends were beaten to death in detention centers in the Donetsk region, and that two others died from the conditions in Russian prisons and were returned home in plastic bags.
Crimean Tatar activist Lenie Umerova described herself as a political prisoner of Russia. Her detention began when she tried to cross from Georgia into Russia to visit her gravely ill father in Crimea, a peninsula that is part of Ukraine but has been under Russian occupation since 2014. She was held, she said, on fabricated charges. Unlike most other detainees, she managed to reach a lawyer, who in her third month of detention obtained a court order for her release. As soon as the prison gates opened, a bag was placed over her head and she was taken away again. Over six months she passed through seven different facilities, which she called a carousel of repression. She named several women who remain in Russian prisons and said at least 84 women have faced criminal prosecution.
What the UN found about Russian prisoners
The same office interviewed 816 Russian prisoners of war and 57 prisoners from third countries, drawn from more than 45 nations, who had fought within Russian armed forces. About half reported torture or abuse, mostly in the first days of captivity and during interrogation. UN observers said conditions in Ukrainian detention facilities generally comply with international humanitarian law and have improved since 2022.
Russia rejected the findings. Deputy Permanent Representative Maria Zabolotskaya told the Council that Russian armed forces comply with international humanitarian law, including in their treatment of prisoners, and claimed that Russian prisoners in Ukraine suffer torture and degradation. She called the session part of a disinformation campaign against Russia funded by NATO states involved in the conflict, aimed, she said, at undermining efforts toward a peaceful settlement and justifying strikes on Russian territory and civilians.
Ukraine’s Deputy Permanent Representative Volodymyr Pavlichenko said he was struck that Russia was not prepared, at the session, to discuss the return of prisoners of war, including its own, or of all civilian detainees, among them children who had been taken.
The war is now in its fourth year, and attacks by both sides intensified over the summer. The UN has had no access to Russian detention facilities since February 2022, so every new figure is still built from the testimony of those who have made it out.
