On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Ukraine, together with the international community, honors the memory, resilience, and dignity of those who have endured one of the most serious crimes against humanity - torture, cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Unfortunately, this day holds particular significance for our nation and for the people who are enduring one of the most extensive state-run campaigns of torture in modern history carried out by Russia. 

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, Russian troops and occupation administrations have systematically used torture as a tool of war and terror. Victims of torture include prisoners of war, civilians, journalists, local government officials, activists, volunteers, and even children.

The systematic use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment by Russian occupiers against Ukrainians has been documented by numerous international human rights mechanisms, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, and the OSCE. 

These international bodies have documented identical methods of torture, sexual violence, mock executions, beatings, electric shocks, prolonged deprivation of water, food, sleep, and medical care.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, in its reports of 2022–2025, has clearly established that torture committed in Ukraine by Russian forces is systematic and coordinated, occurred across different regions, and bears the hallmarks of an organized policy.

The Commission’s conclusions unequivocally qualify these acts as crimes against humanity. This underscores not the accidental nature of individual incidents, but a large-scale and deliberate campaign of terror directed against the civilian population and prisoners of war.

Torture constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law, the UN Convention against Torture, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes the urgent need to intensify all forms of pressure on the Russian Federation in order to ensure the inevitable punishment of all those involved in the crimes of torture and to provide comprehensive support to their victims.

Only by joining forces can we achieve justice, end the practice of impunity, and prevent the recurrence of such crimes in the future.