By Galina Korol | 2025-03-19

KYIV -- Over the past year, human rights activists have recorded at least 109 brutal executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs).

Those being held by the Russians remain isolated from the outside world, and their families do not know whether their relatives are alive, what their condition is or where exactly they are, Amnesty International (Amnesty) said in a recent report.

"In almost 100% of cases, Ukrainian [POWs] are without any communication with the outside world," said Veronika Velch, Amnesty's director in Ukraine, as quoted by Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform on March 4.

"Among 43 Ukrainian prisoners of war and their family members, only five said they were able to receive a letter or phone call, and this only if the Ukrainian POW agreed to an interview for Russian TV channels."

'A separate kind of hell'

"We asked for phone calls and requested to at least write letters, emails. We were told that this was impossible. They said that [POWs] do not have the right to this," former POW Olesia Melnychenko told Amnesty in an interview in Kyiv last August.

While preparing the report -- "A Deafening Silence: Ukrainians Held Incommunicado, Forcibly Disappeared and Tortured in Russian Captivity" -- researchers conducted more than 100 interviews, including with former POWs.

"In Olenivka [Donetsk province], they beat the boys in front of us, forced them to sit on a bottle," Melnychenko said, referring to a practice Amnesty has previously documented in Russia, whereby the captive is sexually violated.

"They tormented them in ways we could all see and hear," she said.

"I'm not even mentioning the conditions we were held in -- that was a separate kind of hell," Melnychenko said. "It was a cell with no running water. You slept on the floor, and mice ran over you. You eat nothing but garbage. The only thing that probably kept us from dying was the bread. Everything else was just horrific."

Death by torture, captivity

The exact number of Ukrainian troops in captivity is unknown.

About 8,000 POWs are confirmed to be in captivity, but the "real number" according to freed Ukrainian POWs is 10,000, said Natalia Yepifanova, chairwoman of Warrior's Liberation, an NGO.

Yepifanova cited another category, that of "disappeared persons," which includes both military personnel and civilians. Many on this list may be in Russian prisons, but Moscow simply refuses to acknowledge their existence.

"Of all those who have gone missing [during the war], perhaps up to 20% are now in captivity," she told Kontur.

However, even being captured does not guarantee the life of a Ukrainian prisoner. Last year alone, human rights activists confirmed the Russians executed 109 captured Ukrainians on the spot.

"We can say that the highest Russian leadership is involved in this because we see this same picture on every section of the front," Andrey Yakovlev, managing partner of the Umbrella law firm and analyst with the Regional Center for Human Rights (Kyiv), told Kontur.

In addition to these illegal and brutal massacres are the deaths of those held in Russian prisons.

"There is such constant bullying that [inmates] simply cannot stand it and die," said Yepifanova.

"There is torture that does not immediately lead to death but after an hour or two," she said. "For example, they jump on your rib cage. It breaks, and vital organs are damaged. After an hour, two or three, the person bleeds out and dies."

"Such cases have happened. There are many [prisoners] who died from such ... lengthy torture," she said.

Ukrainian POWs not only cannot obtain adequate food but are denied medical care, in gross violation of international law, rights activists said.

In many cases prisoners are punished for even seeking medical help for themselves or other captives, former POWs told researchers.

"Now the guys returning from captivity are telling us that about 20 [prisoners] whom we know about for sure are currently bedridden. They can't stand up. And they weren't wounded [in battle]," said Yepifanova. "That is, this is the consequence of being in captivity."

Prisoners "can simply 'burn out' [perish] because they have the flu, or people just get sick, or some chronic diseases get worse and are not treated," she said.

80% of bodies had signs of torture

Forensic scientists can confirm the brutal torture that Ukrainians are subject to in Russian captivity after having examined the repatriated bodies of deceased POWs.

"We find signs of torture on 80% of bodies that were handed over to us from [Russian] pretrial detention centers, prisons, etc.," said Inna Padiei, director of the Ukrainian Health Ministry's Forensic Examination Unit, in the documentary "The Return: Heroes on Their Shields," posted March 5 on the Ukrainian Interior Ministry YouTube channel.

Determining the time of death of the repatriated bodies is very difficult, she said.

"Bodies are not delivered to us immediately after death but after some period of time, which can be from weeks to several years," she told the filmmakers.

The bodies are not only decomposed but also emaciated from deprivation, Padiei said.

Accountability for Russia

To hold Russia accountable for its troops' crimes against Ukrainian prisoners, Ukraine must continue to record evidence, document survivors' testimonies and work with international partners, the Amnesty report said.

"All the torture and crimes related to [POWs] are not being committed by individual guards. Rather, this is a systemic governmental policy. This is a country that is committing crimes," said Yepifanova of Warrior's Liberation.

"We need to know everyone who is involved in this torture," said Yakovlev the attorney. "We need to have their personnel lists and [other] registries and include them in as large a system of international sanctions as possible."

This requirement pertains to not only rank-and-file executioners but also the high command.

"If we can hold accountable the Russian leadership, which is capable or could influence this, and these people come to know they are being sought all over the world, then they would behave completely differently," said Yakovlev.

"They must fear punishment," agreed Yepifanova. "They must be afraid to commit new crimes. Because we know that now, at this moment, even as we speak, these crimes are being committed."