Evidence mounting about Russian tactics of sexual torture against Ukrainian civilians: UN expert
Press releases
Special Procedures
21 August 2025
GENEVA -- The Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, and several other experts have sent a dossier of sexual torture allegations to the Russian Federation involving the cases of 10 Ukrainian civilians abused in occupied regions of Ukraine, including Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.
"These separate allegations, capturing the experiences of four women and six men, are truly grisly," said Edwards. "They represent however only a small snapshot of a wider, well-documented pattern of risks of torture to civilians in occupied areas."
"These were all highly sexualised assaults which included rapes, threats of rape, and other depraved conduct," the expert said. "It is becoming clearer that the Russian Federation's deliberate and systematic policy of torture in Ukraine involves sexualised torture and other sexualised cruelty, including against the civilian population."
In all the documented cases, repeated electric shocks were administered, including to the genitals. These civilians were beaten, kicked, blindfolded and, in some instances, drownings were simulated and mock executions carried out.
"A rudimentary rule of international warfare is that civilians are to be protected. Russia appears to have abandoned the international rulebook entirely. It is high time that they were held to account for these unlawful practices and more pressure brought to bear by all States with influence over them," Edwards said.
"The Russian Federation is using torture to intimidate, instil fear and control civilians in occupied territory of Ukraine."
"There is also credible evidence of arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, and serious violations of the right to health of civilians. The information received also refers to deaths in detention due to torture, including through the denial of medical care," the Special Rapporteur said.
The experts have called on the Russian Government to provide additional information about the specific allegations, as well as about the broader measures being taken to prevent torture and sexual torture perpetrated by Russian military and military-adjunct personnel, as well as intelligence and detaining authorities. One of the women concerned remains detained in the Russian Federation and an appeal for her urgent release has been raised.
Alice Jill Edwards is the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
This statement was endorsed by:
- Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions;
- Gabriella Citroni (Chair-Rapporteur), Grażyna Baranowska (Vice-Chair), Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez, Aua Baldé and Mohammed Al-Obaidi, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances;
- Claudia Flores (Chair), Ivana Krstić (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls;
Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.
Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/
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