Torture centres in Kherson planned and financed by Russia, says lawyer group

A team of Ukrainian and international lawyers has found evidence which suggests that the Russian torture centres found in Kherson, Ukraine, were not random, but were planned and directly financed by Russia. Notably, Kherson was under Russian control for eight months, from March last year till the beginning of November when Ukrainian forces took back control of the city after a fierce counteroffensive.

The prisoners at the centres included anyone who was connected to the Ukrainian state or Ukrainian civil society, including activists, journalists, civil servants and teachers. Several others who had been imprisoned there said they were randomly picked off the street and detained for allegedly having “pro-Ukrainian” material on their phones.

The team, headed by a UK barrister, is known as the Mobile Justice Team,said on Thursday that they investigated 20 torture chambers in Kherson and it is highly likely that they were part of a “calculated plan to terrorise, subjugate and eliminate Ukrainian resistance and destroy Ukrainian identity”.

Ukrainian prosecutors had collected evidence from around 1,000 survivors to understand more about the torture centres. Plans used by Russian forces to establish, manage and finance the 20 torture centres in Kherson were part of the evidence analysed by the group.

“The mass torture chambers, financed by the Russian state, are not random but rather part of a carefully thought-out and financed blueprint with a clear objective to eliminate Ukrainian national and cultural identity,” said Wayne Jordash, the British barrister who is leading the team.

“The mass torture chambers, financed by the Russian state, are not random but rather part of a carefully thought-out and financed blueprint with a clear objective to eliminate Ukrainian national and cultural identity,” said the British barrister Wayne Jordash.

The lawyers say that the torture centres were run by Russian security services, the FSB, as well as the Russian prison service and local collaborators. The torture centres, they said, were meant to subjugate, re-educate or kill Ukrainian civic leaders and ordinary dissenters.

Those taken to the torture centres were beaten and given electric shocks. The team says they were also forced to learn and recite pro-Russian slogans, poems and songs. At least 400 people went missing from the centres, and it is unclear if they died orwere taken to Russia.

“Putin’s plan is to occupy Ukraine, subjugate the Ukrainian population to Russian rule and destroy Ukrainian identity. This plan is becoming clearer as the evidence of war crimes proliferates and as our investigations progress,” Jordash said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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