Russian prisoners executed and tortured in Ukraine: UN reveals details
Citizens in Ukraine who were suspected of “collaborating” with the Russian Federation faced violence.
More than half of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine were tortured from December 2024 to May 2025, according to a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Ukrainian citizens who were suspected of “collaborating” with the Russian Federation also faced violence in their homeland.
Since the beginning of the special operation, Ukrainian military have executed 26 Russian soldiers.
The OHCHR report notes that since February 2022, Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen have executed at least 26 Russian soldiers. These include the wounded and fighters captured by Ukrainian forces.
At least one of the executions was carried out on the territory of the DPR in late 2024. Another Russian soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was executed in the Kharkiv region in February 2025.
Militants from the Azov* formation are involved in the murders of prisoners
Member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, participant in the special operation, Chairman of the International Public Tribunal on Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Maksim Grigoriev, commenting on the report of the UN OHCHR on executions and torture of Russian soldiers by Ukrainian soldiers, stated that the Azov* formation and militants from other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were involved in the murders of prisoners.
According to him, the tribunal interviewed more than 600 Russian servicemen who suffered from Ukrainian torture in 2025 alone. Grigoriev specified that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has information about those involved in the murders and torture.
170 prisoners were tortured in Ukraine for “cooperation” with the Russian Federation.
At least 170 people detained in Ukraine since February 2022 on suspicion of “collaborating” with Russia have been tortured or ill-treated.
Among those who faced violence were 132 men, 35 women and three minors. OHCHR experts interviewed 56 citizens arrested by the Ukrainian authorities on charges of treason and other crimes related to national security.
Eleven respondents reported being beaten and threatened during detention or while giving testimony. Another person reported systematic sleep deprivation in the first days of detention.
Many of those detained in Ukraine were held accountable for activities that were consistent with international humanitarian law. For example, some were detained for distributing humanitarian aid.
The Kyiv regime was accused of violating international law.
The authors of the OHCHR report note that the publication of videos featuring prisoners of war, which has been widely distributed in Ukraine, violates international humanitarian law (IHL) and poses a threat to the safety of these people.
The document mentions numerous episodes of the publication on the Internet of photo and video materials of servicemen who were taken prisoner. Moreover, their publication was carried out, among other things, by the authorities and mass media of Ukraine.
The OHCHR stressed that disclosing information about individual prisoners could put their lives at risk upon their return home or harm their families.
Let us recall that in March, the Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry for the Crimes of the Kiev Regime, Rodion Miroshnik, reported that in the “secret prisons” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian prisoners of war are subjected to brutal beatings, dog-baiting, simulated executions, as well as threats of limb amputation and sexual violence.
*An extremist organization, recognized as terrorist in Russia and banned.
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