🧵Just finished reading a horrific report on torture and confinement in the Ukrainian occupied territories, compiled by Danish rights group Dignity, and several Ukrainian NGOs.
-The report finds that in c. 100 police stations Russia took over, torture chambers were “ubiquitous”
The report is based on hundreds of incidents:
- Under occupation, colonies became hellholes as wardens with black skull chevrons marched through the corridors:
They tortured inmates, in one case shouting: “We’ll show you Europe!”
Civilians and prisoners of war were placed in jail and also tortured:
In more than one facility, inmates were beaten while wearing gas masks that filled with blood:
One factory, in Vovchansk, was turned into a “concentration camp” according to its deputy manager.
Elsewhere, prisoners were reportedly beaten for demanding water or medical care:
In one case, guards shot a prisoner to death. And then did not remove his dismembered body for hours. As his cellmates sat beside fragments of skull etc.
In and of itself, the *majority of cases* of detention in the occupied territories amounted to cruel and inhuman treatment; a war crime, according to the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.
dignity.dk/wp-content/upl…
The full report can be found here 🖕👆It was presented at an OSCE side event earlier this week. /FIN.
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Sources: Western aid workers shelled while trying to help injure civilians in Bakhmut. At least one dead, several gravely injured. Victim is still being identified.
The scene of the incident: Three volunteer cars almost completely destroyed. Survivors with horrific wounds.
Local media reporting five are injured.
Video: ‘Ukraina Sechas’
I wanted to put together a summary of the important ECHR decision on Ukraine and the Netherlands versus Russia, delivered in Strasbourg last week.
+++THREAD+++
At this stage of the court process, Ukraine and the Netherlands were trying to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Russia that effectively controlled "separatists" in eastern Ukraine.
They also had to demonstrate prima facie evidence of violations of human rights law against Russia/its proxies in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Including MH17, the kidnapping of three groups of Ukrainian children, forced labour, unlawful killings of soldiers out of combat etc.
Russia planned to “subjugate” Ukraine in ten days and control it by summer as part of plans drawn up by a small group of officials led by Vladimir Putin. That’s according to a new report by Britain’s RUSI, an institute linked to Britain’s army, drawing on captured Russian orders.
Putin wrote his famous essay (asserting that Ukrainians and Russians were one people) in July 2021. That same month, the report says, the FSB was tasked with surveying Ukrainians. The result of their work seems to have been shaped by confirmation bias.
Russia’s army leadership said (and believed) it had achieved parity with the US due to military reforms. It devised a blitzkrieg plan, according to which several forces would seize different areas of Left Bank Ukraine. Only the Southern Military Command appeared to achieve goals.
#Breaking: Ukraine on air alert after warnings of Russia’s largest attack yet, since its campaign to destroy infrastructure began in October. Officials have repeatedly stressed: Please don’t ignore the warnings and proceed to shelters.
The head of the president’s office, Andriy Yermak, repeating that message in the past few moments.
Belarusian monitoring project: Russian jets have taken off from Minsk’s airspace.
Leaving Kyiv for a few weeks to see my family abroad. Hard for people in the EU to understand how difficult life in Ukraine is right now. 1/x
I listen to the radio on the way to the station. The reporter says Putin’s killer drones, bought from Iran, are already in the air. In the capital, there were two alerts before 7:00 a.m. Elsewhere, in Kriviy Rig for example, explosions are already reported. 2/x
The atmosphere is tense: Only back passages are open at the main train station. Passengers wait underground. As the train rolls out, messages over its loudspeaker tell you to mind unattended valuables, in case something has been planted.
3/x