More than 5,500 Ukrainians have reportedly been tortured by Putin’s troops, while over 10,000 peaceful civilians are being held in occupied territories, Kyiv has said.
Prosecutor general Andriy Kostin told Interfax-Ukraine: “There are different figures. We estimate tens of thousands, more than 10,000 for sure. We are talking only about those who were forcibly relocated, not about those who made this decision at their own discretion.”
He added that 164 torture sites and forced detention centres had been documented in liberated territories, while a UN human rights report found that at least 32 prisoners of war were executed in Russia this winter.
The Kremlin has strongly denied any allegations of torture or maltreatment.
It comes after a Ukrainian navy spokesperson claimed they had sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea, with four ships hit in the latest strike over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) made the bizarre claim that the US, the UK and Ukraine were all somehow involved in the terror attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed 139 people on Friday.
An Isis affiliate has already claimed responsibility for the attack, including publishing purported video of it being carried out, and Western intelligence agencies say the claim is credible.