Ukrainian POW horrifically tortured, with words ‘glory to Russia’ burned on his chest
A Ukrainian Military Intelligence spokesperson has confirmed the authenticity of a harrowing photo showing the torture to which a Ukrainian prisoner of war was subjected in Russia. The man’s captors had burned out the words ‘glory to Russia’ on the side of his chest.
Andriy Yusov was asked to comment on the photo circulated on social media by Clash Report. He confirmed that it was genuine, and that it had been taken by one of the doctors at a regional rehabilitation centre, treating prisoners of war released during a previous prisoner exchange. The doctor had been so appalled by what he saw that he had posted it online, The photo is evidence of the horrific torture that Ukrainian defenders are subjected to in Russian captivity and it is vital, Yusov stressed, that the world sees what the Russians are doing.
While no information is given about when and why the tortured Ukrainian defender received very deep stitches right down his front, the fact that the words were burned into his skin on the side of this huge scar suggests that he had already been wounded when this act of excruciating torture was carried out.
Yusov pointed out that 90% of freed Ukrainian prisoners of war speak of having been subjected to torture and ill-treatment while in Russian captivity. As well as physical torture, this includes failure to provide medical care and the horrific conditions that the prisoners are held in, with most of those who return having clearly not received enough to eat. Yusov stressed that you can easily see the difference between the Ukrainian defenders who return home, and the Russian POWs held in Ukrainian captivity.
It is not only Ukraine that is documenting the crimes that Russia is committing against prisoners of war., which include, not only systematic torture, but summary executions of men who are unarmed and have surrendered. It is unclear why, as yet, the International Criminal Court has not issued international warrants over such egregious violations of international humanitarian law as the evidence is overwhelming.
Since March 2024, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, a body created by the UN’s Human Rights Council, has found, and detailed, evidence Russia’s torture of both Ukrainian POW and of civilians had been “widespread and systematic.
In October 2024, the Commission issued a new report in which it concluded that Russia is pursuing a coordinated state policy of torturing Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages with this constituting a crime against humanity. The Commission noted that those torturing Ukrainians include high-ranking prison and FSB officials, with all clearly certain of their impunity. See: Russia’s torture of Ukrainian civilians and POWs is a crime against humanity – UN investigators
The regular reports issued by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also provide shocking accounts of Russia’s “widespread and routine” torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and the fact that POWs are believed to have died as a result both of direct torture, and of failure to provide medical assistance. In fact, back in August 2024, Danielle Bell, Head of the OHCHR Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, gave an even more horrifying statistic, suggesting that Russia subjects over 95% of Ukrainian POWs to torture. In an interview on Dutch TV, she called the torture the worst she had seen in her 20 years of monitoring places of confinement.
Ms Bell’s interview coincided with the news of another death of a Ukrainian prisoner of war in Russian captivity. The forensic examination carried out in Ukraine after the body was returned of 55-year-old Oleksandr Ishchenko showed that he had died of injuries inflicted on him while in a Russian SIZO, or remand prison. Ishchenko was one of 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war – both men and women against whom Russia staged a ‘trial’ of quite incredible cynicism. During the final hearings, some of the surviving POWs, all of whom are recognized political prisoners, gave details of the torture they had endured. See Russia’s ‘Azov trial’ – one Ukrainian POW tortured to death, 23 given monstrous sentences. That ‘trial’ was one of very many where Ukrainian defenders have been sentenced to horrific terms of imprisonment, or life, on absolutely spurious charges, with the only ‘evidence’ ever provided being ‘confessions’ extracted, almost certainly through torture, from men held incommunicado, without access to independent lawyers.