section_path: War crimes and attacks on civilians/Prisoners of war
section_name: Prisoners of war
paragraph_text: Prisoners of war
  
  A 25 August 2022 report by the Humanitarian Research Lab of the Yale School of Public Health identified some 21 filtration camps for Ukrainian "civilians, POWs, and other personnel" in the vicinity of Donetsk oblast. Imaging of one camp, Olenivka prison, found two sites featuring disturbed earth consistent with "potential graves". Kaveh Khoshnood, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said: "Incommunicado detention of civilians is more than a violation of international humanitarian law—it represents a threat to the public health of those currently in the custody of Russia and its proxies." Conditions described by freed prisoners include exposure, insufficient access to sanitation, food and water, cramped conditions, electrical shocks and physical assault.
  
  An OHCHR report released in November 2022 documented abuses on both sides. The report was based on interviews with prisoners who spoke of abuses and ill-treatment.
  
  In March 2023, UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk reported that more than 90% of the Ukrainian POWs interviewed by his office said they had been tortured or ill-treated, including ″welcoming beatings″ on their arrival in penitentiary facilities, which Russia despite several requests did not give UN staff access to.
  
  In April 2023, several videos started circulating on different websites purportedly showing Russian soldiers beheading Ukrainian soldiers.
  
  In March 2024, the United Nations issued a report saying Russia may have executed more than 30 recently captured Ukrainian prisoners of war over the winter months. The UN Human Rights Office verified three incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen. According to the same report, 39 of 60 released Ukrainian prisoners of war also "disclosed that they had been subjected to sexual violence during their internment, including attempted rape, threats of rape and castration, beatings or the administration of electric shocks to genitals, and repeated forced nudity, including during interrogations and to check for tattoos".
  
  In October 2024, the EEAS released a statement describing the increasing frequency of Russian executions of Ukrainian prisoners, with at least 177 prisoners dying in Russian captivity since the beginning of the war. The statement also included the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)'s confirmation of systematic use of a wide range of different methods of torture used by Russians against Ukrainian prisoners.
  
  The Ukrainian Armed Forces have also been accused of executions and other abuses of Russian prisoners of war, but the number of such allegations has been significantly lower.: para. 105