Clear Evidence of Tortured Russian POWs by Ukrainian Nazis

by Stephen Lendman

In 2016, a joint Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International report accused the (US-installed Ukrainian puppet regime of) "arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and torture."

Their report included evidence from victims' family members and lawyers, eye-witnesses, and other sources.

Last July, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report, titled:

"Ukraine: Torture, Ill-Treatment by Armed Groups in East," falsely blaming Donetsk and Lugansk for torture and other abuses committed by Nazified Ukrainian forces.

A report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) — covering the period April 2014 - April 2021 — made similar false charges, blaming the DPR and LPR for torture and abuse by Ukrainian forces.

While also accusing what it called "government actors (meaning from the Kiev regime) of committing these crimes, it dubiously claimed the following:

"From 2016, the prevalence of conflict-related arbitrary detention by Government actors substantially decreased (sic)."

Days earlier, former Donbass prisoners explained what they endured at the hands of Nazified Ukrainian Aidar battalion thugs.

Held at a secret prison in the village of Polovinkino, one former detainee said the following:

"We were beaten often. One militiaman had the word 'separ' carved into his chest with a knife."

"We slept on…ashes."

"Prisoners were forced to go to the bathroom in the cell. You'd dig a hole, like a cat, and do your business."

They were taken to a "procedure room" and tortured.

One detainee was poisoned and died.

Video footage was discovered with evidence of tortured detainees by Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

"We have seen it," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, adding:

"It will be checked."

"Our Investigative Committee is already doing that."

"It is quite monstrous footage."

"It needs a legal assessment, and those who took part in this torture to be prosecuted." 

"They must be held accountable for their actions."

Video showed heavily beaten Russian forces taken captive with gunshot wounds to their legs.

Inflicted after being taken prisoner, they were denied "medical assistance."

Russia's Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said a probe will be conducted "to establish all the circumstances of (Ukrainian torture and abuse), collect and record evidence, and identify all the persons involved in it to subsequently bring them to justice."

Some Russian POWs died from torture and abuse.

Separately, Bastrykin denounced Nazified Ukraine as "a country whose ideology is built on Russophobia." 

"The current Kiev regime uses nationalist beliefs to persecute the Russian-speaking population of Donbass and contributes to the creation of threats to Russia by NATO."

"(T)otal discrimination on the basis of nationality began, and last year a law was passed on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, where Russians were not even included."

"At the same time, looking at numerous videos recorded not by the official media, but by ordinary citizens, we see that quite a lot of Ukrainian residents still speak Russian."

Since 2014, based on events in Donbass and Ukraine, the Investigative Committee opened more than 500 criminal cases involving 180 individuals," Bastrykin explained. 

"Among them there are high-ranking representatives of the military and political leadership of Ukraine."

They include "Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov and former Dnipropetrovsk governor Igor Kolomoisky, ex-chairman of Verkhovna Rada Alexander Turchinov, interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko, commanders of the Ukrainian armed forces Valery Ismailov, Andrey Grishchenko, Oleg Mikats, Mikhail Prokopiv, Alexander Zhakun, Oleg Kutsin, Valery Gudz, Vyacheslav Pechenenko, Dmitry Kashchenko, Fedor Yaroshevich, Andrey Ignatov, members of the Ukrainian nationalist organizations recognized as extremist in Russia Right Sector and National Corps."

"The Russian Investigative Committee continues to collect evidence of crimes of Ukrainian nationalists threatening the lives of Donbass residents as well as our citizens and interests of the Russian Federation." 

"Currently, this work has been conducted in a proactive manner."

Russia's Investigative Committee documented evidence of genocide and brutality of civilians by Nazified  Ukrainian radicals.

A crisis center was established "to coordinate activities aimed at recording the Ukrainian regime's crimes against civilians in the LPR and DPR," Bastrykin explained, adding:

It's "tasked with collecting and recording evidence of genocide and other crimes against peace and security of mankind committed by the military and political leadership of Ukraine, members of nationalist battalions and other people, and bringing perpetrators to justice."

All of the above has been ignored by US/Western regimes and their MSM co-conspirators.

Instead of denouncing Ukrainian crimes of war, against humanity and other atrocities from the 2014 Maidan coup to the present day, their silence reflects complicity.

No ambiguity exists about hegemon USA's guilt as far and away the lead culprit — for creating and supporting the Nazi-infested Kiev regime for use as a weapon against Russia.