Russian forces carried out war crimes on Kherson prisoners
Editor's note: The following article contains graphic material detailing reports of torture of people in Ukraine.
WASHINGTON — The identification of Russian forces who carried out various forms of torture and sexual violence on prisoners in the Ukrainian city of Kherson is "well underway," according to a team of international lawyers investigating alleged war crimes.
Kherson, once home to more than 280,000 people, was the first major city to fall to Russian forces during Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After months of Russian occupation, the southeastern city was liberated in November by Ukrainian forces, which reopened Kherson to international humanitarian and investigation teams.
"It is important that we are assisting the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General not only with bringing the perpetrators of these severe sexual crimes to justice but also with building successful cases against those who gave the orders," Wayne Jordash, an international human rights lawyer and managing partner of the law firm Global Rights Compliance, told CNBC.
"The pattern that we are observing is consistent with a cynical and calculated plan to humiliate and terrorize millions of Ukrainian citizens in order to subjugate them to the diktat of the Kremlin," added Jordash, who leads a Mobile Justice Team, a group of international lawyers and investigators supporting Ukraine's prosecutor general's office.
Read more: Russian forces have relocated at least 6,000 Ukrainian children to camps since start of war, new report says
The Mobile Justice Team is one component of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, which is funded by the State Department, European Union and the U.K.'s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
According to the new evidence gathered by the investigation, at least 36 victims described the use of electrocution during interrogations, and of those cases nearly half involved electrocution of genitals. Others detailed incidents where genital mutilation was threatened and at least one person said they were forced to witness the rape of another detainee by a foreign object.
Source: CNBC
