Ukraine documents 695 Russian torture methods, 406 POW deaths, and 2,112 sham convictions in 'Made in Russia. Delivered to Captivity' project
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets unveiled the "Made in Russia. Delivered to Captivity" project on Thursday, formally documenting 695 distinct torture methods used by Russia against Ukrainian prisoners of war and confirming that 406 Ukrainian POWs and civilian hostages with captured status verified by the ICRC or other sources have died from torture in Russian custody, most often from broken ribs and internal organ damage. He further reported 860 logged cases of improper detention conditions, 2,112 Ukrainians sentenced by Russian courts in what he called "a separate crime" of illegal rulings of 20-25 years or life, and a network of 186 verified holding sites across Russia, occupied territories and Siberia. Lubinets publicly criticised the International Committee of the Red Cross for declining his separate invitation to attend, citing the unanswered 2022 Olenivka massacre of 53 ICRC-verified POWs as evidence that "there is no international human rights protection system" functioning against Russia.
Speaking at the presentation of the "Made in Russia. Delivered to Captivity" project in Kyiv on Thursday, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said the Ukrainian state was "officially recording" that the Russian Federation uses 695 distinct forms of torture against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages, including physical and psychological abuse and sexual violence. "Prisoners of war are strangled, beaten, subjected to electric shocks, set upon by dogs and sometimes forced to stand in one place for up to 18 hours," Lubinets told the audience, in remarks carried by Ukrinform and Ukrayinska Pravda. "As soon as you start to squat, you are immediately physically beaten."
He described a specific practice the project documents as the "hairdresser" or "barber": "during shaving, they deliberately cut off not only hair but also pieces of skin from the scalp. If a person starts screaming, they are immediately beaten again and subjected to electric shocks." Lubinets said poor detention conditions and torture were systematic, including unsanitary conditions and the use of starvation as a method of coercion. Ukrainian authorities have logged 860 cases of improper detention conditions to date.
The figure of 406 dead, Lubinets said, refers to Ukrainian citizens — prisoners of war and civilian hostages — whose captured status had been verified either by the International Committee of the Red Cross or by other sources, and who were returned to Ukraine "on a shield." The most common cause was a combination of broken ribs and damage to internal organs from torture, compounded by the denial of medical assistance afterwards. He also reported that 2,112 Ukrainians have been sentenced by Russian courts: "This is a separate crime committed by the Russian Federation — issuing illegal court rulings of 20, 23, 25 years, or life imprisonment against official Ukrainian prisoners of war."
International partners have identified 29 Russian-operated detention sites — 18 inside Russia and 11 in temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine — while Ukrainian intelligence agencies have verified 186 separate locations across the entire territory of Russia, including in Siberia, and the occupied territories. "Conditions in these places are almost identical and unsuitable for the civilised detention of prisoners," Lubinets said.
The ombudsman reserved particular criticism for the International Committee of the Red Cross, which he said had been sent a separate invitation to the launch but did not attend. "They are not in the hall. They do not want to once again hear that there is a problem with the fulfilment of their mandate," he told the room. He invoked the 2022 Olenivka explosion at a Russian-run prison holding defenders of Mariupol: "Fifty-three men, verified by the ICRC as prisoners of war, were killed, more than 130 were injured. Where is the response? There is none." The weak international response, Lubinets said, signals to Russia that it can continue with impunity: "There is no international human rights protection system for a country that tortures prisoners of war, civilian hostages, and deports Ukrainian children — and that country is called the Russian Federation. It simply does not exist."