Torture in Ukraine involves documented and alleged cases of torture committed within the borders of Ukraine. Numerous cases of torture of civilians and Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have been documented,^[1][2][3][4] including rape of women and children.^[5]

Overview

Ukraine signed the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture on 2 May 1996 and ratified it on 5 May 1997. The convention came into effect on 1 September 1997.

Before Euromaidan

Before the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, according to British expert Taras Kuzio , the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs had a notorious reputation, worst of any other security force in Ukraine. Mistreatment of citizens, their torture, and abuses of rights were common. Little had changed since the Soviet times in the methods of policing.^[6] In April 2010, the Council of Europe reviewed around 6,000 complaints about torture, of which the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies only examined 200 cases, and all these decisions were biased in favor of torturers. As a result, the Council of Europe condemned the lack of investigations related to police torture.^[7]

Torture during the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine

In 2017, Amnesty International reported that during the War in Donbass, which followed the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine, there was extensive evidence of ongoing war crimes, including torture and summary killing of prisoners. Amnesty reported that "prisoners on both sides have been beaten and subjected to mock executions". Amnesty also reported that Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists (but not Ukrainian military) murdered prisoners.^[8]

Torture by Russian forces during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine

Notes