Russian authorities have committed torture as a crime against humanity, says the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine in its latest report to the UN General Assembly.
Previously, the Commission had concluded that the use of torture by Russian authorities constituted war crimes. Additional cases of torture against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war have established the use of torture in all areas under Russian control in Ukraine and in the detention facilities it has investigated in the Russian Federation.
The evidence further demonstrates that Russian authorities have deployed specific services and security forces from the Russian Federation to various detention facilities in occupied areas they controlled in Ukraine. Those services and forces acted in a coordinated manner, and according to a specific division of labor, in perpetrating torture.
Further, sexual violence as a form of torture, mostly against male detainees, has been recurrent in detention facilities operated by Russian authorities.
Read more here.
