Ukraine says children’s cell found inside Russian ‘torture chamber’
- Youngsters were held and mistreated inside the room, which Ukraine investigators found in Kherson after the area was recaptured from Moscow’s forces
- The children were reportedly given little food and water and were told their parents had abandoned them and would not return
Ukrainian investigators in an area recaptured from Russian troops have uncovered a cell where children were detained and mistreated, a senior Ukrainian human rights advocate said on Wednesday.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, said the cell was in one of four torture centres operated by Russian troops in Kherson – a city in southern Ukraine abandoned by pro-Moscow forces last month.
Russia denies targeting civilians in the war and rejects allegations it has mistreated civilians.
Lubinets, who has presented a series of reports on alleged torture, said conditions were worse than sites of confinement investigated in other recaptured areas.
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“We found 10 torture chambers in Kherson region, four in the city of Kherson,” he told journalists at a briefing. “In one of the torture chambers we found a separate room, a cell where children were kept … even the occupiers called it that, a children’s cell.”
The cell differed from adjacent rooms only in that occupying forces placed thin mats on the floor, he said.
