LPR ready to provide evidence of tortures in Ukrainian captivity to UN - ombudsperson

The Lugansk People’s Republic is ready to provide to the UN the evidence of tortures of servicemen in Ukrainian captivity, LPR ombudsperson Viktoria Serdyukova said.

 

“Today, our servicemen personally told a UN representative about the tortures they had experienced in Ukrainian captivity,” Serdyukova said adding that the Republic had documented these facts.

 

“The UN has all necessary tools to launch an official inquiry within its mandate. We’re ready to provide evidence, not just the testimonies of our injured servicemen, but also medical and proceedings records,” the ombudsperson said.

 

 Up to date, international human rights organizations have not reacted to the conditions in which POWs are kept in Ukraine, she said.

 

“As we know from our servicemen who returned from Ukrainian captivity, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations had visited many of them. Their competence includes the use of measures against the injuring party. If they saw the condition of our servicemen in Ukrainian captivity and if these conditions are maintained, we can only conclude that no measures have been taken as of now against the administration of the penitentiary where they are kept or the Ukrainian political leadership,” Serdyukova said.

 

Over 150 LPR servicemen have returned from Ukrainian captivity since the beginning of the special military operation in February. The LPR ombudsperson said that more than 100 of them had been physically abused.

 

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. On July 3, the LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations.

 

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014.  The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.

 

The Lugansk People’s Republic became a part of Russia on September 30, 2022 after the unification referendum.*i*v