Torture and castration of a Ukrainian POW in Pryvillia

Last updated

In July 2022, video recordings of the torture, castration and murder of a Ukrainian POW in the Pryvillia sanatorium by Russian servicemen were published online. Taking place during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the video caused an international outcry and brought strong condemnation from a number of human rights bodies. Representatives of both Ukraine and the US characterized the event as a war crime.

Contents

Emergence of the video

On July 28, 2022, a video was posted on a Russian Telegram page showing a Russian soldier torturing and castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The identity of the victim is unclear through the video; however, the video is shot in high-quality footage and features extreme themes of violence throughout.

In the initial stages, the victim is repeatedly stomped on, rendering them unconscious, before being mocked, restrained, bound, and gagged by a group of Russian troops. One of the Russian soldiers, who is short and stocky in figure and wears a wide-brimmed sequinned hat, reaches over the victim. Wearing blue surgical gloves and wielding a box-cutting knife, the man cuts through the victims trousers, exposing his genitals. A proceeding scene then depicts the unconscious victim having his genitals removed, which the protagonist then appears to hold up to the camera. In the video, the man wielding the box-cutting knife also mentions that the victim engaged in sexual crimes against children. [1]

On the following day, an alleged continuation video was posted in Russian channels with what appears to be the same Russian soldier and prisoner. With the victim prone and lapsing in and out of consciousness, the Russian soldiers again tape the Ukrainian prisoner's mouth with black tape and throw the severed genitals into the direction of the victim's face. The group then drag the victim via a rope connected to his legs to a small ditch, at which point the Russian soldier appears to shoot him in the head. [2] [3]

Bellingcat investigation

On 5 August, the Bellingcat group reported that the videos were geolocated to the Pryvillia Sanatorium, located in Pryvillia, Luhansk Oblast, and interviewed the apparent perpetrator by telephone. [4] A white car marked with a Z – a designation marking Russian military vehicles and a militarist symbol used in Russian propaganda – can also be seen in the video; the same car can also be seen in earlier, official videos released by Russian channels, of the Akhmat fighters at the Azot plant during the Russian capture of Sievierodonetsk. [4] Pryvillia had been captured and occupied by Russians since early July. [5]

Bellingcat and Conflict Intelligence Team identified the soldiers involved, including the main perpetrator, Ochur-Suge Mongush from Tuva, who wore a distinctive wide brimmed black hat, as members of the Akhmat unit, a Chechen Kadyrovite paramilitary formation fighting for the Russians in the war in Ukraine. The investigation also indicated that the video contained no evidence of tampering or editing. [4] [6]

Reactions

In Ukraine

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced an application to the Office of the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine to verify a war crime according to the Geneva violation of the Geneva Conventions, and that they would ask the UN Committee Against Torture to organize an urgent visit to Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture. [7]

International

The EU High Representative Josep Borrell released a statement on 29 July describing the contents of the video as "appalling" and a "heinous atrocity". [8] On the same day, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “This horrific assault is yet another apparent example of complete disregard for human life and dignity in Ukraine committed by Russian forces. All those suspected of criminal responsibility must be investigated and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, prosecuted in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to death penalty." [9] The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine released a statement on Facebook saying

"HRMMU is appalled by the latest videos, apparently showing the beating, castration and shooting of a captured soldier from the Ukrainian Armed Forces by a man, who appears to be a member of the Russian armed forces or affiliated armed groups. In one of the videos, the tortured soldier appeared to be shot in the head and his body dragged into a ditch. If confirmed, these actions would constitute war crimes." [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pryvillia</span> City in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine

Pryvillia is a city in Lysychansk urban hromada, Luhansk Oblast (region) of Ukraine. Population: 6,520.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadyrovites</span> Chechen paramilitary and protection unit

The 141st Special Motorized Regiment, colloquially known as the Kadyrovites or the Akhmat special forces unit, is a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia. As of 2023, the regiment's official commander was Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov.

Human rights violations were committed by the warring sides during the second war in Chechnya. Both Russian officials and Chechen rebels have been regularly and repeatedly accused of committing war crimes including kidnapping, torture, murder, hostage taking, looting, rape, decapitation, and assorted other breaches of the law of war. International and humanitarian organizations, including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of international humanitarian law.

The phone call to Putin is a slang term used by some Russian police departments for torture method which consists of administering electric shocks to the person's earlobes, nose, and/or genitals. According to Amnesty International, torture with electric shocks by security forces and prison, jail, and penal colony guards is common in Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian war crimes</span> Violations of the laws of war committed by the Russian Federation

Russian war crimes are violations of international criminal law including war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide which the official armed and paramilitary forces of Russia have committed or been accused of committing since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the aiding and abetting of crimes by proto-statelets or puppet statelets which are armed and financed by Russia, including the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic. These have included murder, torture, terror, persecution, deportation and forced transfer, enforced disappearance, child abductions, rape, looting, unlawful confinement, inhumane acts, unlawful airstrikes and attacks against civilian objects, use of banned chemical weapons, and wanton destruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zelimkhan Khangoshvili</span> Georgian Chechen soldier and alleged war criminal (1979–2019)

Zelimkhan Sultanovich Khangoshvili was an ethnic Chechen born in Georgia who was a former platoon commander for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as a volunteer during the Second Chechen War, and a Georgian military officer during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Later on, he allegedly turned into a useful source of information for the Georgian Intelligence Service by identifying Russian spies and jihadists operating on domestic and foreign soil to Georgian intelligence agents. Khangoshvili was considered a terrorist by the Government of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service, and wanted in Russia. On 23 August 2019, Khangoshvili was assassinated in Kleiner Tiergarten, a park in Berlin, by FSB operative Vadim Krasikov.

Armenian prisoners of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War are servicemen of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh and the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, as well as civilians and other detainees, who surrendered or were forcibly captured by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces during and after the conflict in 2020 between Azerbaijan and the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh together with Armenia in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine</span>

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military and authorities have committed war crimes, such as deliberate attacks against civilian targets, including on hospitals, medical facilities and on the energy grid; indiscriminate attacks on densely-populated areas; the abduction, torture and murder of civilians; forced deportations; sexual violence; destruction of cultural heritage; and the killing and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariupol hospital airstrike</span> Russian war crime during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 9 March 2022, the Russian Air Force bombed Maternity Hospital No. 3, a hospital complex functioning both as a children's hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring at least sixteen, and leading to at least one stillbirth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bucha massacre</span> 2022 massacre by Russian forces in Ukraine

The Bucha massacre was the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war by the Russian Armed Forces during the fight for and occupation of the city of Bucha as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photographic and video evidence of the massacre emerged on 1 April 2022 after Russian forces withdrew from the city.

Sexual violence in the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been committed by Armed Forces of Russia, including the use of mass rape as a weapon of war. According to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the victims of sexual assault by Russian soldiers ranged from 4 years old to over 80 years old.

The torture of Russian soldiers in Mala Rohan was an incident during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine that occurred in the village of Mala Rohan. As documented by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, members of Ukrainian armed forces shot the legs of three captured Russian soldiers and tortured Russian soldiers who were wounded. The incident is likely to have occurred on the evening of March 25, 2022 and was first reported following the publication on social media of a video of unknown authorship between March 27 and March 28. As a case of summary execution and torture of prisoners of war, the incident might qualify as a war crime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trial of Vadim Shishimarin</span> Trial of Russian war criminal

Vadim Yevgenyevich Shishimarin is a Russian soldier who was the first person to go on trial for war crimes committed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 18 May 2022, he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting an unarmed civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov. On 23 May, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Shishimarin's lawyer lodged an appeal and on 29 July 2022, his sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison. Law professor Chris Jenks suggested that the legal reasoning, conviction and sentencing appeared to be flawed.

Patrick Lancaster is an American vlogger, podcaster and influencer. Although described as pro-Kremlin, Lancaster has been called a double agent due to his videos covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine regularly revealing compromising Russian military information, which is used against Russia by Ukrainian forces, western intelligence agencies, and western media. Lancaster is known for regularly filming staged scenes and attempting to pass them off as real, and has been referred to as a fake master.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olenivka prison massacre</span> Killing of prisoners of war in Ukraine

On 29 July 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a building housing Ukrainian prisoners of war in a Russian-operated prison in Molodizhne near Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, was destroyed, killing 53 to 62 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) and leaving 75 to 130 wounded. The prisoners were mainly soldiers belonging to the Azov regiment who defended the Azovstal complex, the last Ukrainian stronghold in the siege of Mariupol.

Atrocity crimes have been committed during the Russo-Ukrainian War, chiefly by the Russian Federation and its proxy forces in Ukraine's Donbas region.

After the successful 2022 Ukrainian Kharkiv counteroffensive which liberated a number of settlements and villages in the Kharkiv region from Russian occupation, authorities discovered torture chambers which had been used by Russian troops during their time in control of the area.

The Makiivka surrender incident happened during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in the village of Makiivka, Luhansk Oblast. Videos depicted what appeared to be at least ten Russian soldiers surrendering to four Ukrainian soldiers in Makiivka. Russian soldiers exited an outhouse one by one and laid facedown on the ground. Ukrainian soldiers appeared relaxed with rifles pointed to the ground. Then an eleventh Russian soldier suddenly emerged and opened fire at the Ukrainians, catching them by surprise, a possible war crime of perfidy. In another video, there was about 12 dead visible from the footage. When the footage was taken, and who shot the footage, was unknown.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both Ukrainian and Russian/separatist prisoners of war have suffered several forms of abuse, such as mistreatment, exposure to public curiosity, torture, or even execution.

A video depicting the decapitation of a Ukrainian prisoner of war was first published online on 11 April 2023, and then circulated through pro-Russian sources. The video shows men in military uniforms with Russian military insignia and wearing masks cutting off the head of a man in a military uniform with Ukrainian insignia.

References

  1. Weiss, Michael; Cavanagh, Niamh (July 28, 2022). "Horrifying footage appears to show Russian captors castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war". Yahoo! News . Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  2. Bulavin, Denis (July 29, 2022). "The Russians shared a video of the torture of a military man in Ukrainian uniform. The prosecutor's office started proceedings". Hromadske (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  3. "Video with the torture of a Ukrainian prisoner of war - proceedings have been initiated". Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). July 29, 2022. Archived from the original on July 29, 2022. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 "Tracking the Faceless Killers who Mutilated and Executed a Ukrainian POW". Bellingcat . 5 August 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-08-05.
  5. Harding, Luke (6 August 2022). "Footage appears to show fresh atrocity against Ukrainian PoW". Ukraine. The Guardian . Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  6. "Дело в шляпе. Cадистом, истязавшим украинского военнопленного, оказался наемник из батальона 'Ахмат' Очур-Суге Монгуш". The Insider (in Russian). 2022-08-05. Archived from the original on 2022-08-12. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
  7. "Ukraine Calls For Investigation After Video Purportedly Shows Russian Troops Torturing, Killing POW". RFE/RL. 29 July 2022.
  8. "Ukraine: Statement by the High Representative Josep Borrell on the latest Russian atrocities". The Diplomatic Service of the European Union. 29 July 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2023. Evidence in form of appalling video footage has been widely shared on pro-Kremlin social networks today, in which Russian soldiers commit a heinous atrocity against a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
  9. "Ukraine: Russian soldiers filmed viciously attacking Ukrainian POW must face justice". Amnesty International. 29 July 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  10. "UN "appalled" by footage of torture and shooting of Ukrainian POW". Ukrainska Pravda. 29 July 2022.