'We'll leave you to rot' — UN report details horrific torture of Ukrainian civilians in Russian captivity
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report on Sept. 23 detailing the vast scale of torture committed by Russian forces on Ukrainian civilians held in captivity in occupied territories.
Between June 1, 2023, and Sept. 10, 2025, OHCHR documented 508 cases of civilian detainees, including 392 men, 103 women, three girls, and nine boys. These include individuals of all age groups, from adolescents to older adults, as well as 15 persons with disabilities.
"We will leave you to rot. No one will find you. No one needs you. You don't exist. We'll bury you right here; only hungry dogs will find you," one civilian detainee said when describing the threats he received in captivity.
Moscow occupies roughly 20% of Ukrainian territory in the east and the south, including Crimea and large parts of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts. Ukrainian civilians living in the area have faced persecution and detention under Russian occupation.
The Kremlin enforced Russian criminal law in the occupied territories, disregarding international humanitarian law obligation to respect local laws unless strictly impossible.
While detained by Russia, Ukrainians are subjected to brutal torture, including physical and psychological torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, and inhumane conditions of detention.
"People have been arbitrarily picked off the streets in occupied territory, charged under shifting legal bases and held for days, weeks, months, and even years, often with limited contact to their families," Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in the report.
Former detainees reported experiencing a broad array of torture and ill-treatment during their captivity. Commonly described methods included severe beatings with various objects such as batons and sticks, electric shocks to different body parts, mock executions, kickings, threats of death, and violence directed either to a detainee or their loved ones.
Detainees were also subjected to stress positions, such as "bent walking" and prolonged kneeling on concrete surfaces, and different forms of humiliation, including forced singing of the Russian anthem and patriotic songs.
According to the report, over 92 % of the 216 released civilian detainees interviewed since June 2023 provided consistent and detailed accounts of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment during their captivity. Additionally, 101 interviewees described witnessing torture or ill-treatment of other detainees.
One civilian detainee held in captivity by Russian soldiers said his captors beat him "heavily with a baseball bat, targeting legs, a knee, and head."
"They damaged my elbow, displaced my kneecap, and injured my feet. I told one of them to be a human being and shoot me dead. He replied that he would not waste ammo to kill me," he said.
Sixty-six released Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) said that they witnessed torture and ill-treatment of civilians who were held together with them in the same facilities in 2024 and 2025, according to the U.N. study.
"Torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment are absolutely prohibited and the life, well-being and dignity of persons deprived of their liberty must be respected," the report says.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on May 9 that Ukrainian authorities had confirmed the ongoing detention of around 1,800 Ukrainian civilians by Russia. The actual figure is likely much greater, as verifying the information is difficult.
"In the occupied territories of Ukraine, people are subjected to illegal persecution for their pro-Ukrainian stance," Lubinets said.
"Numerous cases of torture and physical and psychological violence have been documented. The (Russian) occupiers fabricate criminal cases against Ukrainians."
The ombudsman added that this is part of Russia’s repressive policy aimed at suppressing Ukrainian resistance in occupied territories.
Lubinets called it a "flagrant" violation of international humanitarian law, as the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the forcible transfer of civilians, torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
