Reports have been emerging from recently-liberated areas in Ukraine of Russian soldiers using torture rooms against civilians (Picture: Getty)
Russians have murdered, tortured and kidnapped Ukrainians in a systematic pattern that could implicate Vladimir Putin’s top officials in war crimes, a US official has warned.
US ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack stressed it is ‘very hard to imagine’ how such crimes could be committed without responsibility going all the way up the chain of command.
It comes as Ukrainian prosecutors have identified four places in Kherson where they suspect enemy soldiers tortured people before abandoning the port city.
In turn, the Kremlin on Friday cited videos circulating online, which allegedly show Ukrainian soldiers executing prisoners of war.
‘We are obviously tracking that quite closely,’ Ms Van Schaack told reporters in Washington.
‘It’s really important to emphasize that the laws of war apply to all parties equally: both the aggressor state and the defender state and this is in equal measure.’
In the border town of Kozacha Lopan, in the Kharkiv region, police discovered a jail that they believe Russian soldiers used as a torture chamber (Picture: Getty)
Another alleged torture chamber in liberated Kherson (Picture: east2we)
Nine months into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the devastating human costs are clear.
Thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded, while 13 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.
Ms Van Schaack stressed there is strong evidence that Russian abuses were not random.
She said war crimes were committed in every region where Russia’s forces have been deployed.
‘This includes deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks against the civilian population and elements of the civilian infrastructure,’ she added.
A doll is seen among graves, which Ukrainian officials say is a civilian mass grave in the town of Lyman, Donetsk region (Picture: Reuters)
Natalia Lukyanenko watches authorities excavate a mass grave in the grounds of the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho in Bucha (Picture: Anastasia Taylor-Lind)
‘We are seeing custodial abuses of civilians and POWs and also efforts to cover up these crimes.
‘We have reports of citizens being killed execution-style, with their hands bound.
‘We have bodies that show signs of torture. We have horrific accounts of gender-based violence, including sexual violence against women and children. ‘
Prosecutors in Ukraine have already identified ‘thousands of incidents’, which may constitute war crimes, like those found in Izium and Bucha.
All of this is without yet knowing what is unfolding in areas still occupied by the Russian army.
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Ms Van Schaack said additional evidence will continue to come to light as Ukrainian troops regain control of more territory.
She said: ‘There are compelling reports describing physical and psychological abuse, including summary executions, as part of these operations, and the forcible transfer and deportation, including thousands of Ukrainian children, who have been abducted and forcibly adopted by families within Russia.’
‘What we are seeing in these images, videos, and reports, including witness accounts, suggest that these atrocities are not the acts of rogue units or individuals.’
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War crimes were committed in every region where Russia’s forces have been deployed.
