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Russian Forces Are Brutally Torturing Women in Ukraine

Soldiers with the Ukrainian army’s 1st Battalion, 95th Separate Airmobile Brigade train with a DShK 12 mm machine gun during their training cycle at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center on the International Peacekeeping and Security Center near Yavoriv, Ukraine on Sept. 6.
Soldiers with the Ukrainian army’s 1st Battalion, 95th Separate Airmobile Brigade train with a DShK 12 mm machine gun during their training cycle at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center on the International Peacekeeping and Security Center near Yavoriv, Ukraine on Sept. 6. Yavoriv CTC Observer Coach Trainers, along with mentors from the Polish army and the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, led the training for soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 95th Separate Airmobile Brigade during the battalion's rotation through the Yavoriv CTC. The 45th is deployed to Ukraine as part of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine, an international coalition dedicated to improving the CTC's training capacity and building professionalism within the Ukrainian army. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Eric McDonough, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team)

Russian forces are committing what looks like horrific human rights abuses in Ukraine: 

Zelensky

Ukraine’s President Zelensky. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

A Ukrainian soldier who returned home last week after a large prisoner swap described the torture she and other women received at the hands of Russian forces during her six months in captivity.

Identified only as Hanna O. to protect family located in Russian-occupied territory, she told the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform about her experiences with tears in her eyes: “They treated us like animals. I’ll tell you more: even animals don’t behave like that.”

Hanna, 26, was one of 108 women, including 12 civilians, who were released from Russian captivity on Monday in one of the largest swaps of the war. Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said it was the first all-female prisoner exchange since the war began in February.

Hanna was taken captive while serving in Mariupol as part of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, Ukrinform reported. She was among the Ukrainian service members who surrendered in May after being trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol for weeks as Russian forces surrounded and bombed it. She spent the next six months in captivity.

“They beat the girls, they tortured the girls with electric current, beat them with hammers, that’s the easiest thing. They hung girls. I don’t talk about the food at all, because it was sour. Even the dogs are not given such food,” Hanna told Ukrinform about how the women were treated.

“Those who had tattoos… they wanted to cut off our hands, cut off the tattoos, scalded us with boiling water just because you exist, because you are a marine, because you speak Ukrainian,” she continued, adding that the only thing that kept her going was “the dream of returning home.”

Her story adds to a growing number of firsthand accounts of torture at the hands of Russian forces, inflicted on both service members and civilians. Torture, regardless of who it is used on, is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

More stories have emerged since Ukraine has made advances into Russian-held territories.

After Russian forces were pushed out of Izium last month, an Associated Press investigation identified ten sites in the city in which Ukrainians, including civilians, had been tortured. One woman told The Washington Post she had carved details of her torture into the walls of where she was held so people would know what happened to her had she not survived.

AZP S-60 57mm AA gun in Ukraine

From Twitter: “An AZP S-60 57mm AA gun mounted on a truck used by UA forces- one example of the many improvised weapons appearing recently,”

RGW-90 rocket launcher

RGW-90 rocket launcher in Ukraine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

Investigators commissioned by the United Nations concluded in September that Russian forces had committed a number of war crimes, including torture and rape, against soldiers, civilians, and even children. They had also found evidence of forced deportations, which also may be a war crime, as reports suggest Russian forces have been taking Ukrainian children against their will in order to raise them as Russian.

Kelsey Vlamis is a breaking news reporter for Insider (where this first appeared), where she also covers stories about the environment, religion, politics, and Indigenous communities. she previously worked on the world news desk at the BBC in London and received a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @kelseyvlamis.

Written By

Kelsey Vlamis is a breaking news reporter for Insider, where she also covers stories about the environment, religion, politics, and Indigenous communities. she previously worked on the world news desk at the BBC in London and received a master's in journalism from Northwestern University. She can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @kelseyvlamis.

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