UN documents prisoners' torture, abuse in Ukrainian conflict

The United Nations human rights agency says that prisoners taken by the warring parties in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have endured systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses

KYIV, Ukraine -- Prisoners taken by the warring parties in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have endured systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses, the United Nations human rights agency said in a report released Friday. The report issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that prisoners' abuse was particularly rampant in the initial stage of the seven-year conflict, but noted that it continues to this day. “Seven years since the outbreak of the conflict, it is unacceptable that such egregious human rights violation remain largely unaddressed,” said Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. “The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is absolute. Torture can never be justified.” The conflict in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland called the Donbas erupted in April 2014 weeks after Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula that followed the ouster of the country's former Moscow-leaning president. Russia-backed separatists took control of large areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, established the so-called ‘people’s republics' and fought the government forces attempting to reclaim control. More than 14,000 people have been killed.